EDUCATION
CI welcomes the NGA W
In the National Gaming Academy’s inaugural column, NGA co-ordinator Colleen McLaughlin introduces the organisation…
ith the bright lights, hard working croupiers and the sound of chips being thrown down, I could be in any casino in the country. But I’m actually at the Regional Gaming
Academy in Blackpool, where we’ve been delivering professional qualifications to the gaming industry since 2006. Our training facility is set up like a casino, allowing our students to get realistic training on the tables while also picking up essential skills including customer service. Together with North Warwickshire and Hinckley and Greenwich Community Colleges, we form the National Gaming Academy. As you can imagine, life working for a gaming academy is a whirl of activity, visiting casino operators across the UK and making sure our students are job- ready when they leave us.
Education can be a good way to boost morale, as staff feel the company has invested in them. Just look at these happy workers from Genting’s Mint Casino in Manchster (above) and Southport (below)
NVQ Roll-out
It’s an exciting time for us right now – our new NVQ in Gambling Operations, which for the first time covers both Casino Operations and Gaming Machines, is really starting to take off. After a successful pilot at Circus Casino in Star City almost two years ago, we’ve continued to work closely with Genting ever since.
Thanks to the team at Blackpool,
nearly 50 Genting staff from six of the North West casinos have achieved the nationally recognised qualification. Two of our assessors, Richard Dunston and Ashley Hutson, worked with the candidates for six months – they visit them in the workplace so the operators don’t lose too much staff time too!
Meanwhile, assessors Elaine De Christie and June
Scott from North Warwickshire and Hinckley have ensured around 30 Genting employees from casinos in the Midlands have completed the NVQ and the team at Greenwich recently started working with Genting in the South – the geographical spread of our Academies really is ideal for large national companies. Staff at Aspers have also benefited from the NVQ,
with Aspers realising the pros of having employees who are specifically trained for the gaming industry. Approximately 80 individuals based at the Newcastle
26 DECEMBER 2010
and Northampton casinos have now been assessed and are ready to put their training into action. Aspers are also introducing our foundation degree in casino operations management programme to their staff so we’re looking forward to continuing our partnership with them well into the future. Slot machine operators haven’t been left out of the
new wave of NVQ’s either – assessors Paul Gooden- Wood and Paul Henstock from North Warwickshire and Hinckley have been working with Welcome Break and Blackpool’s gaming academy has continued its long standing partnership with Crown Leisure. In total over the last 12 months, we’ve seen more
than 250 students complete the NVQ courses across all three gaming academies, and we hope to deliver between 400 and 500 qualifications over the next year. However, if you’re interested in working with the National Gaming Academy to deliver this type of qualification, get signed up as soon as possible as the Government are making changes to the way the programmes are funded.
Rainbow given Golden Touch
The team over at North Warwickshire and Hinckley College have been especially busy recently. They’ve been working with Rainbow Casino in Birmingham as they prepared for a massive relaunch of their casino after extensive refurbishment. Staff from the College liaised with the casino from the beginning of the refurbishment project to maximise the partnership and the College was able to offer non-gaming training too. In addition to delivering qualifications to employees, North Warwickshire and Hinckley designed bespoke training programmes in line with Rainbow’s policies and processes and assisted in interviewing and recruiting potential candidates. This is a great example of how innovative and
flexible our gaming academies can be. Congratulations to everyone involved, all the hard work has paid off and the casino is sure to be busy over the festive period.
N-ICE to see you
Finally, it’s the annual ICE Expo in January and the National Gaming Academy will once again have a stand at the event. We feel that its really important to have a presence at these big events – it’s a great opportunity for us to meet with other people in the industry and spread the word about our fantastic courses. We’re all really looking forward to it – come and say hi, we’re at booth 3382!
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