Roxbury Community College.
Credit: Nicolaus Czarnecki/METRO
While its fate in Massachusetts is up in the air, Mohegan Sun is still pushing to secure a spot in the state by announcing a partnership with Boston-area community colleges to train potential workers.
The Connecticut-based casino operator announced on Sunday in a news release that it is partnering with three Boston-area community colleges to help train the potentially thousands of casino workers that will be needed.
Mohegan Sun is in competition with Wynn Resorts for the only Greater Boston casino license. Both sides presented their final pitches to the state gaming commission last week and a license isn’t expected to be awarded until May.
The agreement means that Mohegan Sun will work with Bunker Hill Community College, North Shore Community College and Roxbury Community College to create a workforce development plan that will include curriculum and worker training programs in areas such as tables games, casino accounting and materials management. Mohegan Sun has said that its casino would create 4,000 permanent jobs.
The colleges are part of the Massachusetts Casino Careers Training Institute, which is a consortium made up of the state’s 15 community colleges as well as workforce development agencies. Mohegan Sun was one of the casino operators to sign a similar agreement last year when it had plans to build a casino in Palmer before a failed vote.
“This agreement represents a significant opportunity for our students and the future workforce of the Commonwealth,” North Shore Community College President Patricia Gentile said in a statement. “We look forward to collaborating and sharing ideas with the Institute and Mohegan Sun to develop the curriculum and programming that will allow our students, from day-one, to fill the critical job-demand that will be created in the next several years.”
Mohegan Sun has proposed a $1.3 billion resort casino on 42 acres of land on Suffolk Downs in Revere. It still faces a citywide vote on a Host Community Agreement set for next month.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
