Southern CT State, Mohegan Sun Partner On Employee Certificate Program

NEW HAVEN, CT — The Southern Connecticut State University Recreation, Hospitality, and Sport Management program has launched a new Tourism, Hospitality, and Event Management (T.H.E.M.) advanced certificate for employees of Mohegan Sun.

The program will launch in January 2023, is fully online, and costs $995. It is being offered exclusively to employees of Mohegan Sun.

“Our industry saw a 180-turn from the pandemic,” said Assistant Professor of Recreation, Tourism, and Sport Management Annamarie Sisson, the program’s coordinator. “It lost a lot of employees throughout the world, so now our industry of hospitality and tourism is essentially hiring a brand-new set of employees.”

The pandemic compelled many employees to leave tourism, hospitality, and event management jobs, leaving a gap. That created a new challenge for the industry: attract and retain new employees with leadership skills and the ability to step into management roles.

The T.H.E.M. certificate will provide Mohegan employees with hands-on experience to understand the theoretical components of how the industry operates. It will also offer the opportunity to apply their “soft skills” to their current jobs while advancing their career to middle and upper management roles.

The collaboration with Mohegan Sun will give students a chance to explore internship and potentially career placement opportunities. Mohegan Sun has approximately 8,000 employees and offers 275,000 square feet of meeting and event function space as part of its gaming and entertainment complex in southeastern Connecticut.

The T.H.E.M. advanced certificate is designed to help students build their business skills through a five-course module that students can take at their own pace. The coursework is expected to take students about 15 hours to complete, working asynchronously as a class in tandem with Southern’s spring semester schedule.

For information or to sign up for the T.H.E.M. certificate program, contact Annamarie Sisson at SissonA2@southernCT.edu or visit SouthernCT.edu/THEM-certificate.