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University of Illinois Springfield combines education and cannabis with Green Flower noncredit certification courses, offering professional development and credentials to people seeking to get into the growing cannabis industry.
Partnering with UIS in early 2021, Green Flower, a cannabis education platform and program, has been a driving force for nearly 10 years in bringing science-based education about cannabis to people around the country. Already certifying over 300 students at UIS alone, Green Flower offers certification courses at 60 universities across the nation and is gaining traction as legal cannabis becomes more common.
Green Flower offers five distinct six-month certification courses through UIS and other partnered universities to match each area vital to the cannabis industry. Agriculture classes focus on the farming and horticultural aspect of cultivating cannabis while the business of cannabis focuses on the development of dispensaries. Individuals interested in product development can learn all about creating cannabis products sold at dispensaries, while those interested in the medical applications of cannabis have a course as well.
The fifth and newest course, Cannabis Compliance and Risk Management, focuses on the current and changing laws that cannabis businesses must carefully follow. It covers regulations from farming to dispensary and each level of government oversight from local, to state and federal.
These courses are part of UIS’s noncredit programs, making them more accessible to people outside the main university credit system. This means someone who isn’t a student can enroll and not have to worry about tuition for attending the online classes. However, the course itself is not free, costing just under $2,000 in total or $325 a month. Terrence Taylor, a grandfather and Decatur resident with a successful career in broadcasting at Y103 Decatur radio, is one such student. He was not seeking a degree but was able to take the Business of Cannabis course and gain a certificate, which is helping him currently work toward a cannabis business of his own in Illinois.
“My main goal and the reason that I pursued this was to alleviate the negative connotation of cannabis business within the Black and brown community, and if I could assist in that I’ll happily do it,” said Taylor. “Being an African American male, I know what (cannabis) has done to my community and I wanted to be what I have always seen in myself, using my brain and my platform to connect correct and educate. I wanted to be that for my community and to have another source of revenue for me and my family.”
Rob Kerr, UIS executive director of innovation and opportunity, said he worked to forge the partnership between UIS and Green Flower because he saw a growing market and wanted to give people a way to enter the industry.
“I am an educator and a workforce expert. My job is to look around to see where the workforce needs are and see if we can help to get people to pipeline. Green Flower gave me that opportunity in a way that was so much easier,” said Kerr. “Students don’t have to be enrolled at UIS to take these courses. I’ve been in credit most of my career in higher education and I love noncredit because it is so much easier. The process for registering for the course is completely separate from the main application to UIS.”
Max Simon, co-founder and CEO of Green Flower, says he began the project in 2014 during the beginnings of legalization and saw a need for better education and reducing stigma against cannabis and the benefits it could yield.
“I’ve been a medical cannabis patient for many decades now and have a real close relationship with the value and the benefits this plant can provide,” said Simon. “It was very clear that this was going to become a huge industry, and that because of the history and the stigma people were not prepared to play a role in building this new regulated legal framework. Cannabis is a very complex issue, it’s not simple to understand, and the industry itself is not simple. So that’s where education comes in to help provide clarity, guidance and expert instruction to help people learn how to succeed in this new industry.”
New sections for the Green Flower courses open every other month at UIS, with the next round of courses scheduled for March. Interested individuals can visit cannabiseducation.uis.edu to learn more.
Logan Bricker is a master’s degree student in the UIS Public Affairs Reporting program working this semester as an intern for Illinois Times.
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