College cultivates another cannabis production partnership
Niagara College and licensed cannabis producer CannTrust announced a joint partnership this week that will offer internships and potential future employment to students of Canada’s first commercial cannabis production program.
Vivian Kinnaird, the college’s dean of business, hospitality and environmental studies, said the college has cultivated several similar partnerships with local licensed producers in order to provide students with a diverse range of learning opportunities.
“Although no other agreements are currently in the works, we will continue to engage with industry partners,” she said, as the college gets ready for the first crop of students to enter the program this fall.
She said last fall the college reached out to licensed producers of cannabis in Niagara to talk about the program and explore possibilities for work placement opportunities.
“CannTrust recognized that our commercial cannabis production program will meet a very real, immediate demand for skilled, qualified and highly specialized workers,” said Kinnaird.
Through the partnership, CannTrust will award six students with scholarships as part of the program’s inauguration.
“CannTrust is proud to participate with Niagara College in the development of Canada’s very first commercial cannabis production program,” said CannTrust president Brad Rogers. “With Niagara being located so close to our facility, CannTrust looks forward to offering both students and graduates exciting internship opportunities.”
Graduates from the program, said Rogers, will help both CannTrust and others, nationally and internationally, in shaping the next phase of the rapidly changing industry.
CannTrust currently operates a 5,400-square-metre state-of-theart hydroponic facility in Vaughan, as well as a recently completed 22,500-square -metre Phase 1 redevelopment of its 40,500-square-metre Niagara greenhouse facility in Pelham. A Phase 2 expansion is underway and is anticipated to be completed and in cultivation towards the middle of this year.
“Students will have opportunities for in-person workplace placement at CannTrust’s facility in Pelham,” said Kinnaird. “These placements, which begin in the program’s second semester, give students the chance to experience how a real-world cannabis production facility operates and will have the chance to learn the most up-to-date cultivation and production practices from professionals who are working in this field right here in Niagara.”
She said the agreement with CannTrust also opens the door to permanent work opportunities following graduation for qualified students.
Twenty-four students will enter the program this fall, followed by another 24 in January and 24 more in May. Earlier this year, the college said it had received hundreds of applications .
In an interview this past March, Kinnaird said those accepted into the graduate certificate program will come with some sort of diploma, advanced diploma or university in horticulture, greenhouse technology, agricultural sciences, plant sciences, biology or a related discipline. Students will learn plant nutrition, lighting programs and integrated pest management to support optimal crop growth and quality, and how to assess crop health and quality among other things. They will learn in a secure state-of-the-art commercial cannabis lab and production facility at the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus.
Kinnaird said the college program was designed with extensive input from a wide range of licensed producers, in Ontario and beyond, to ensure it was creating a program that produced graduates able to meet the unique workforce needs .
“The high level of support for the program from licensed producers, even at this early stage, shows we’ve hit the mark,” she said.