Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | September 2, 2019 | Worcester Business Journal 13 Teach about marijuana Worcester State University, Clark University and Mount Wachusett Community College have taken a page out of West Coast universities' handbook and begun offering courses or certificate programs for the legal cannabis industry to serve the young Massachusetts marijuana market. When polled online, more than three out of four WBJ readers felt this is a worthwhile pursuit for local institutes of higher learning. F L AS H P O L L Should colleges and universities offer courses for the marijuana industry? Yes. It's a great opportunity to be at the forefront of an exciting new industry. 76% 24% "The industry is clearly here to stay, so the edu- cation system (public and private) should edu- cate people on how to make a career out of it, not unlike any other business." Comments "Absolutely! Universities and colleges should be focusing on developing educational courses, certificates, and other courses for all aspects of the cannabis industry. Additionally, institutions of higher education should also engage in cannabis research to further the science and evidence base. Academics have been prohibited from educating and researching cannabis due to being illegal at the federal level. With a robust medical and adult-use cannabis industry here in Massachusetts coupled with over 120 institutions of higher education, we have a tremendous opportunity here!" H I G H E R E D U C A T I O N F O C U S Jobs in Projected jobs Projected State Jan. 2019 in Jan. 2020 growth 2019 Marijuana job growth These states are expected to have significant growth in marijuana industry jobs this year. administration. With cities and towns going to great lengths to mitigate the impacts of the marijuana industry, cannabis quickly emerged as a possible topic, he said. Enrollees span the gamut from people in the industry, lawyers, public officials and others looking for a career change and hoping to learn more about the regulatory requirements before pulling the trigger on a new business venture. e course will focus on Massachusetts but will tackle the regulatory environment in the 11 states where the use and sale of cannabis has been made legal. LaBrie hopes the course could help replicate the entrepreneurial energy of the cannabis industry to the regulatory side. Startup costs for marijuana compa- nies can soar to well above seven fig- ures, but business models may not fit into the regulatory framework of any given state or municipality, he said. However, those businesses entering the legal market typically want to stay in good standing with regulatory agen- cies, but frustrations can mount aer months of expenses with no opportu- nity to begin selling products. "at creates a prime place for a university to play a very active role in that conversation," LaBrie said. A national model In 2016, the University of Denver billed itself as the first accredited university business school to offer a for-credit course on the business side of the marijuana industry, aer school administrators saw a wide gap in edu- cation in cannabis as Colorado began allowing retail sales in 2014. "at opens the gap for teach- ing, coursework and programs that might help the industry develop in a more professional way," said Andrew Schnackenberg, an assistant professor at the university's Daniels College of Business. e program, open to both graduate and undergraduate students, was de- veloped in house and utilizes the state's status as the first in the U.S. to legalize recreational marijuana to rely on the expertise of those early entrepreneurs to help frame the coursework and par- ticipate in seminars and panels. e coursework tackles distribution, mergers and acquisitions, and how to attract investors to an industry still labeled as risky. "e basic function is to present, reach and explain some of the com- mon frameworks you see in the canna- bis space," Schnackenberg said. Other marijuana education pro- grams have sprung up across the country, such as Northern Michigan University's four-year undergraduate degree in medicinal plant chemistry and the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy's graduate program in the science, therapeutics and policy surrounding medical cannabis. Oak- sterdam University in Oakland, Calif. and Cannabis Training University in Colorado are institutions of higher learning founded directly to serve the needs of the marijuana industry. The Colorado program in Gardner e Cannabis Training Universi- ty has begun working with Central Massachusetts educators to begin training the marijuana workforce. Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner was the first to utilize the resources from CTU's sister company Online Cannabis Education. Via the third party provider, MWCC began offering the online non-credit, certificate course in early 2017. e program offers the chance to obtain nine certificates in medical marijuana, cannabis business, bud- tender, cultivation, careers, cooking and extraction, master of marijuana, marijuana law and trimming. Demand for the courses has been growing each month, said Frick Cardelle. Aer rolling out in February 2017, the program had 18 students. en, 43 signed up for the second year, and 37 have enrolled so far this year with four months to go. Local companies hoping to enter the industry are working with MWCC to help onboard their staff via the program. Stronger workforce pipeline Worcester State University offered the same online program from the same vendor since last September, and like MWCC, wants to eventually grow the program and partner with local cannabis operators for hands-on learn- ing opportunities. With the potential for thousands of new jobs in Massachusetts essentially becoming a possibility in just a few years, Worcester State wanted to take a proactive approach to meet the de- mand, said Jeremiah Riordan, director of the Center for Business & Industry at the university. "I saw this as a responsible thing to do," Riordan said, equating the certif- icate to the Massachusetts Training & Intervention Procedures for Servers of alcohol certificate. While many colleges and universities are still wary of for-credit courses or degrees in cannabis, the certificate can be a supplement to an accountant or chemist who graduated with a degree in those fields but isn't quite ready to transfer those skills to the marijuana industry. "is would make more viable candidates for the cannabis industry," Riordan said. Riordan and the university have had early conversations with Leicester marijuana retailer Cultivate about what a partnership would look like. e program could save young companies like Cultivate time and resources spent training new employees. at's especially true in Massachu- setts, one of the most highly regulated cannabis markets in the country, said Barber of Cultivate. "at's where working with local schools would be a big benefit to every- body," Barber said. No. Resources, especially public money at state schools, shouldn't be spent on an industry still illegal federally. Arkansas 135 960 611% Massachusetts 3,020 12,584 317% Oklahoma 2,107 4,407 109% Florida 10,358 15,434 50% California 47,822 58,083 21% *Oklahoma had 0 marijuana jobs in 2017 Source: Leafly W

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