KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A new program at a West Michigan community college is hoping to help prepare people for jobs in the cannabis industry.
It's an industry that is growing at a fast rate.
Instead of being on the Kalamazoo Valley Community College campus, students can learn online, gaining the knowledge they need to get involved in the cannabis industry.
"Much like we do with a lot of our workforce training programs, we work very closely with businesses to try to understand what the needs are, what the skills they need and to provide customized training to meet those needs," said Kalamazoo Valley Community College Vice-President of Strategic Business and Community Development Craig Jbara.
The cannabis industry is one of the country's fastest-growing industries, according to Cowen.
Here in West Michigan, local companies said they're seeing a shortage of qualified individuals getting into the business.
"Much like other companies, they're in desperate need of people, you know, so they reached out to us and just asked if we could maybe do some sort of skills training or, you know, for it to help engage the workforce and get them interested in maybe going into that type of an occupation," said Jbara.
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The curriculum is created through Green Flower, a highly accredited cannabis education program that will be run through Kalamazoo Valley Community College.
It is also being locally sponsored.
"There’s three programs that we set up, and one’s a cultivation technician, one's a provisioning center associate, and then another one is a dance-manufacturing agent," said Jbara.
The fully online course is eight weeks long, self-paced learning with testing done by Green Flower to ensure the enrolled have an understanding of the course's elements.
"After they're done with each of these modules, or each of these programs, then they get two certificates, they get a certificate of completion from Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and then they get a national certification from Green Flower," said Jbara.
Each individual program costs $900 with discounts if you take all three or if you're a company sending more than five people to train.
"The intent of everything we do is to really help people get employed, help businesses become sustainable, and we feel this program will fill the gap," said Jbara.
Enrollment begins on Feb. 15 through Kalamazoo Valley Community College's website.
