KENT, Ohio — Higher education is taking on a whole new meaning at Kent State University. It’s now offering a cannabis entrepreneurial certificate program.
Eric Mansfield with Kent State University said when Issue 2 was put on the 2023 ballot, Kent knew there was going to be a need for credible, trusted courses to prepare an emerging workforce. That’s when the university decided to partner with Green Flower, an educational training company based in California.
“Our proactive approach was seeing that cannabis could be legalized in Ohio,” said Mansfield. “We did our research to try to find the right partner. They have a good track record. They deliver everything asynchronously.”
Green Flower offers four online courses, cannabis agriculture and horticulture, medical cannabis, the business of cannabis, and a cannabis compliance program. CEO Max Simon said regular business or botany programs don’t have a concentrated understanding of how the cannabis industry operates, but the green flower program does.
“These programs are very specialized to give you the skill sets and the understanding of the cannabis industry, which is really going to translate a lot more directly into getting a job or starting your own cannabis business,” said Simon.
Each course is taken online and takes six months to complete. Students can take on however many or few courses at a time and signing up is easy. The program is not offered semesterly.
“Historically, the idea of people studying cannabis or being in the cannabis industry has been very stigmatized, but it's really important that people really understand that this is a brand new industry that has amazing potential,” Simon said.
Mansfield said it is vital higher education continues to adjust and modify programming to help bolster new workforce development and career opportunities. So far 40 people have enrolled and started courses this month.
“Just as we've seen with computers and the internet and so many other things, we prepare courses there as cannabis has legalized in Ohio, there's going to be a need for people with those qualifications and universities such as Kent State are prepared to step up and provide that,” said Mansfield.
Courses start at $499 per month. Click here to learn more information.
