When Dr Ian Messenger formed the Association of Certified Gaming Compliance Specialists in 2022, he knew that, in addition to a professional certification, professionals valued academic credentials to demonstrate their personal and professional achievements.
Messenger, a Brit who moved to Canada following an illustrious career with the U.K. National Crime Agency to work for international banks, leaned into his academic expertise to make this happen.
The ACGCS partnered up with Dalhousie University, one of Canada’s most research-intensive institutions based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to deliver its educational content in a new way – in the form of University Microcredentials.
“It’s about enhancing and elevating the offering that we have at ACGCS. We were very interested in creating a gaming compliance training offered at the university level. Blending our professional certification with academic recognition. That’s really what led us to partner with Dalhousie University,” Messenger explains.
The association’s founder and chief executive also has an existing link with Dalhousie, having spent over eight years as an instructor at the institution, delivering sessions on subjects from terrorism to police leadership and management development. So when he was looking to take his educational content into the academic arena via a partner, there was only one option.
“Dalhousie University is a very forward-thinking progressive institution that it seems to be a very good fit for us,” he adds. “It provides another option for our client base and we can now offer our main certification, and our responsible gaming course, in two different modalities either as a purely professional certification, or as a certification as well as a university micro credential.
“A lot of our clients, especially those in the government sector, see the university microcredential as a benchmark that they can use to demonstrate the knowledge and expertise of their staff and their ability to ensure effective gaming compliance. The level of interest from regulators and gaming commissions has led us to run several private courses specifically for individual organizations.”
Turning a professional course into a university micro-credential, which can be delivered either in a 12-week instructor-led course, or as a six-month self-study course, seems a daunting challenge. But with Messenger’s rigorous academic background and Dalhousie’s specialisms in providing industry-led content, this process has been smoother than it would seem.
Director, Professional Certificates, Career Essentials and Accreditations at Dalhousie University, Dr Erin Careless, outlines:
“This kind of partnership with the ACGCS is a keystone example of the work that we do. Working with someone who is brilliant and embedded in industry, inside and out. We know what makes a really good learning experience and so when you bring the two together, that’s kind of the ultimate product that we’re looking to put out to those in the community.”
Core to making a successful micro-credential, the pair explains, is putting the needs of the learner at the heart of the course. Messenger notes that condensing a 72-module casino course into just 36 hours can be a challenge but that confirming the objectives, criteria and student outcomes makes the process much more positive for learners.
Moreover, once students have completed the microcredential, they will be able to access the content, alongside an online badge which acts as a certificate for the course. Adorned with the Dalhousie University logo, the badge allows learners and potential new employers to click into the microcredential to recap what they have learned on the course.
Messenger asserts that this is one of the “skill based learning components, which showcases the learning that’s been achieved and adds another layer of competency.”
Careless, meanwhile, highlights how Dalhousie’s reputation as a U15 institution carries weight when those who pass the microcredentials come to apply for new jobs or earn promotions.
“If you work in industry and see both Dalhousie University and that industry standard with the ACGCS logo on there as well, it more than doubles the value because it shows the learner is getting a good learning experience,” she asserts. “Students also know that with this, they can work in the specific field, because it’s got that industry stamp of approval.”
And standards are a huge driver of the partnership between the association and the university. Messenger, as a former academic and as an educator, is assertive in his belief that all of his educational output must be of the utmost academic rigor and integrity.
“We have to go through a rigorous accreditation process with Dalhousie and we had to make sure that our content and our learning objectives were fit for their standard,” he adds. “that adds a lot of weight to our organization as well.”
Under the partnership, the association and the university deliver the Casino Gaming Investigations microcredential, which is assessed via group discussions, coursework, and a final capstone. This seeks to offer agility to those who like to learn in different ways and not necessarily by multiple choice examinations.
The duo also delivers the Responsible Gaming and Player Protection course. This course is 12 hours in duration and provides intense and in-depth training on how to provide top-class player protection services.
These two courses come together to offer students the Certificate in Gaming Leadership, issued by the university to those who complete both microcredentials and a further two electives.
Following on from the hard work of the partnership so far, there are discussions going on to see how the association and university can grow their relationship to deliver more content going forward.
“I really see the value in relationships where we rely on those partners to bring industry knowledge and awareness. We’re doing research all the time, but, relying on these key partners to come to us and, for example, warn of new regulation, which results in a need for training. So at this point, whatever Ian brings to the table, we would seriously look at,” Careless notes.
Messenger notes that there are further discussions in the pipeline, including that a wider professional development certification could be next.
“A great benefit for us is that we have access to a whole host of experts at Dalhousie, we have access to a whole host of existing courses, which are offered in other fields. This is something which will continue to grow I think because there’s a lot of synergy between our two organizations,” he concludes.
