Colleges step in as marijuana industry faces labor shortage
Beleave Kannabis Corp. wants to grow more than just weed.
The Ontario marijuana company aims to build an empire of plant scientists, regulatory experts and security personnel in a nascent industry with exploding demand. But there’s a shortage of experienced staffers in Canada, which became the first industrialized country to fully decriminalize pot in October, chief science officer Roger Ferreira said.
So Beleave, like dozens of other licensed producers, is pressing local universities for help.
“I’m going to pillage the top of your class,” Ferreira said. “All your 4.0 GPAs, send them this way.”
Nearly a dozen colleges across the country are adding or expanding courses designed to train the next generation of marijuana makers, often at the nudging of area employers. Some of the classes count toward two- and four-year degrees. Other schools offer certificates.
Though medical use has been legal in Canada since 2001, the rise of recreational toking has fueled a hiring boom as growers rush to scale up production of smokable buds and oils. Openings have tripled over the last year and now represent 34 of every 10,000 job postings, according to Indeed Canada, an employment site.
“The green rush,” Alison McMahon, founder of web recruiter Cannabis At Work, called it.
Educators have seized on the moment, pledging to equip students for greenhouses and laboratories and storefronts.
In January 2020, McGill University in Montreal will offer a graduate diploma in cannabis production, open only to students with botany backgrounds or bachelor’s degrees in related fields.
The school’s newfound focus on marijuana may seem edgy, but studying weed cultivation requires a grasp of hard-core science, said Anja Geitmann, dean of McGill’s Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
“Genetics, breeding — there are multiple strains that have a different chemical composition,” she said.
Durham College in Ontario, meanwhile, unrolled its “Cannabis Industry Specialization” program this fall, promising to launch careers in the “rapidly expanding cannabis sector,” according to its website. GrowWise Health Limited, a private firm nearby, helped design the curriculum.
And Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Vancouver now offers a “Retail Cannabis Consultant” certificate, the school earlier announced this year, which educates future weed sellers on “compliance, customer service and competence in a complex and evolving industry.”