By Rachel Pritchett
rpritchett@kitsapsun.com
SUQUAMISH
Olympic College and Port Madison Enterprises are putting the final
touches on a certificate program in tribal gaming management that
represents a new level of collaboration between the two.
A few more instructors have to be hired and a few more lines added
to the customized college-level curriculum before school starts
Sept. 21.
Eighteen promising PME workers have been chosen to earn the new
Tribal Enterprise Gaming Management certificate. Their tuition will
be paid by PME while they earn 15 credits over a year on company
time.
Classes will be held near the Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort,
which PME manages.
Enrollment at present is only open to PME employees, but leaders
say if the program’s successful, it could be opened to neighboring
tribes. While some have asked, there is no current plan to open the
course up to the public, however.
“We firmly believe in investing in our employees and our
community,” Russell Steele, PME chief executive officer, said of
the collaboration that’s been a year and a half in the making.
Wendy Miles, OC’s director of customized training, expressed
similar enthusiasm.
“I think both parties are very excited about the opportunity,” she
said.
What PME gets out of the deal are that its best employees become
better ones, now equipped with a broader understanding of the
tribal gaming management. The models they learn will equip them to
work in casinos beyond the Clearwater Casino.
And PME boosts its stock of trained leaders in an industry that
even in this recession continues to grow.
PME currently has 760 employees, according to Steele, making it
among the top private employers in Kitsap County.
Students will take educational excursions into the history of
tribal casino game, hospitality, human relations, financials and
marketing. Instructors will come from the community and OC, and
will include OC’s Jeff Yergler teaching human relations in the
workplace.
The collaboration between a tribe and an institution of higher
learning is becoming increasingly common. In the Northwest, similar
partnerships are in place in with Everett and Tacoma community
colleges and neighboring tribes, as well as with The Evergreen
State College and Grays Harbor Community College.
The partnership between OC and PME started growing around 2006,
when OC provided hospitality training for people who would work in
PME’s new resort. One instructor ended up becoming head housekeeper
at the resort, Steele said.
Everyone hopes the collaboration continues to grow.
“Both parties hope that we will launch another program in 2010,”
Miles said.
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