Springfield-area colleges, job centers gear up for casino worker training

All 15 community colleges across the state have joined together to form the Massachusetts Community College Casino Careers Training Institute.

FILE - In this March 28, 2012 file photo, craps dealers handle bets for customers at Revel casino in Atlantic City, N.J. during its first invitation-only test night. The main casino workers' union in Atlantic City is trying to force a public vote on whether Revel and other businesses can limit the jobs of some employees to four to six years. Local 54 of Unite-HERE on Thursday, June 7, 2012 filed petitions with the city clerk seeking a November referendum on ordinances that would require that casino workers _ including dealers, valets, cocktail servers, bartenders and front desk clerks _ be terminated only for "just cause" and making sure they get sick leave and partial reimbursement for child care expenses. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, File)

William F. Messner

HOLYOKE – Community colleges, including Holyoke Community College and Springfield Technical Community College, have already started developing programs to get local people trained and certified for casino jobs.

“Our goal is to get this going ASAP,” said William F. Messner, president of the 7,000-student Holyoke Community College. “My advice to people who want to work in this industry is to stay tuned.”

Messner is also president of the Presidents Council of Massachusetts Community Colleges. All 15 community colleges across the state have joined together to from the Massachusetts Community College Casino Careers Training Institute. Locally, the community colleges are working with the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County and with career centers like CareerPoint in Holyoke and FutureWorks in Springfield.

Those job centers are the best place to connect job-seekers with training, Messner said.

Massachusetts community colleges have already started cooperating with Atlantic Cape Community College near Atlantic City, N.J.

“They have been in this business since casinos came to Atlantic City,” Messner said. “They have helped with training programs when gaming came in to Delaware, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.”

Some training would be for dealers on the gambling floor, he said. But much of it would be for other support positions in hotels, restaurants, customer services, bookkeeping and other support functions.

Messner said he’s already met with the state Gaming Commission and several of the casino operators competing for each of the three casino licenses the state is making available. The scope of the training needed is daunting.

“We’re talking about three casinos and approximately 10,000 employees,” he said.

Many of the jobs will require licenses, so many of the trainees will have to be pre-screened before they even take their first class.

“It may be necessary to generate two to three times as many candidates as jobs given the screening that has to go on for most, if not all of these jobs,” Messner said.

The community colleges will present a formal plan to the Gaming Commission in October, Messner said. He’ll brief the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County Wednesday.

J. William Ward, executive director of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, said he fears that the casinos will just draw their hotel and restaurant staffs from existing hospitality employees. Siphoning those workers might hurt the rest of the region’s hospitality industry.

Both Ward and Messner said they have been warned to expect fly-by night casino training programs to set up anyplace where a casino is imminent. These operations take advantage of people desperate for employment by charging big money for training programs of questionable value Ward said it is important that any training offered through the community colleges lead to a career pathway, from entry-level to supervisory and into the ranks of management.