Casino Gaming Education
In professional programs such as hospitality administration, business, and the like, education planners generally have an obligation to consider the entry-level employment and long-term career options for which students are to be prepared.
Accordingly, the mission statement of the institution and department or program should serve as a guide to understanding the program's purpose and level of responsibility.
In the case of gaming curricula, two questions should be addressed: For what gaming career opportunities do we expect a graduate of this program to be qualified? Does the gaming industry employment market warrant inclusion of all aspects of this program?
The answers to these questions may depend on the regulations within the local or regional gaming jurisdiction.
For example, in the state of Nevada, all casinos must include hotel rooms, therefore, it makes sense to address aspects of gaming in hotel courses as well as in specific gaming courses.
Other programs may find themselves sandwiched between jurisdictions with differing regulations and therefore differing needs.
Moreover, a program may be faced with difficult choices concerning the courses that can be offered, given limited financial, faculty, and content resources.
Education certainly is an investment. Hospitality education, including gaming education, is no exception. This education requires time, money, hard work, opportunity cost, and risk, so the program must be relevant to the career needs of its students.
For that reason there are critically important roles that general and gaming education play in supporting the gaming industry careers of students.
First, education fundamentals such as reading, writing, speaking, arithmetic, and problem solving, as well as knowledge about the surrounding world, are foundations in life and work.
Education specific to gaming can enhance this infrastructure by further developing the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) needed for success.
These could include providing familiarity with the language of gaming and an awareness of gaming issues (knowledge), developing prowess with gaming tools and conventions (skill), and identifying and refining innate aptitudes and talents (ability) such as capability in solving gaming-related problems.
The gaming industry seeks KSAs in terms of competencies. Concretely, employers view competencies as an individual's ability to take his or her KSAs, and apply them to accomplish a given task, such as supervising staff, preparing a report, or analyzing a statistical question.
Second, education is a potential industry launch pad. Today, it is a key to advancement toward positions of higher responsibility visibility, challenge, and compensation.
For this reason, many people who entered the gaming industry with little related education are returning to classes.
Third is the improved vision it offers when the student returns to the job.
By providing exposure to new ideas and procedures, and promoting evaluation and feedback for continuous improvement on the job, education can boost experience to become its own education.
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