This article originally appears in The London Free Press on October 15, 2019 and was written by Dale Carruthers.
Fanshawe College is rolling out a new research-focused program to train workers for Canada’s budding cannabis industry.
The cannabis applied science program, a one-year graduate certificate launching next fall, will teach students to analyze marijuana for quality, safety and stability. Students will also contribute to research and development of new pot products.
Since Canada legalized recreational cannabis one year ago, colleges and universities across the country have introduced courses and programs to train workers for the industry, specializing in everything from marijuana production and research to business and law.
Fanshawe’s program, which will be taught at the school’s Oxford Street campus in London, is being created through consultation with cannabis industry insiders, some of whom will be instructors, said Lindsay Engel, the dean for Fanshawe’s school of applied science.
“We have really amazing experts that came to us from the cannabis industry. We developed the program in partnership with them,” Engel said Tuesday. “So they came, they gave us feedback, they told us what their needs are in the industry and they’re helping develop the curriculum.
Originally capped at 20 students, the college has boosted the program’s enrolment to 40, Engel said, adding applications opened last week.
Fanshawe applied in August for a cannabis research licence through Health Canada, the federal pot regulator, but hasn’t yet received approval.
“That’s why we didn’t launch for January,” Engel said, highlighted the importance of working in a licensed lab.
“Working in a licensed environment is very different than working in a non-licensed environment. It’s really the standard operating procedures that you have to follow. We want (students) to be familiar with that before they go into the workplace.”
The cannabis industry employs nearly 10,000 workers in Canada, more than 2,000 of them in Southwestern Ontario, according to industry experts, who predict that thousands of additional jobs will be created in the coming years.
