The Nova Scotia Community College has high hopes as it searches for a faculty member to teach in its new cannabis cultivation program.
The college is launching the 18-week program in September at its Kingstec Campus just outside Kentville.
It has been in the works since March of 2018, partly because the legalization of marijuana was on the horizon, said Don Jardine, the academic chair of the school of trades and technology at Kingstec.
“The college responds to industry, so we don’t put on programs from a supply perspective, but from a demand perspective. We knew that demand was coming based on our involvement with industry groups, potential employers and so on.”
He said it’s estimated by industry that 300 jobs will be needed in Nova Scotia over the next two years.
“There is going to be a need for a skill set from a technician perspective of growing and production,” Jardine said.
The program has 20 spots, and the school has set a target of having 15 students registered for this September.
The course will cover cultivation in larger scale, indoor operations, regulatory requirements, reporting and accounting procedures, legalities and post-production procedures.
It also includes biology, earth science, cultivation, pest management and other skills needed in the industry.
An industry representative helped develop the outline for the course, and the successful candidate to teach the program will have a hand in honing the course.
As they weed through the applications, the college will look for people who have a college diploma or university degree in horticulture, agricultural science, plant science, biology or related studies, and five years of related occupational experience in crop cultivation in controlled environments.
While running an indoor grow operation before legalization is certainly experience, a criminal record for cultivation is considered neither a hindrance or an asset, Jardine said.
The program has 20 spots, and the school has set a target of having 15 students registered for this September. The course was just posted this week, and Jardine wasn’t sure how much interest there has been so far.
There are similar courses at community colleges in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Ontario.
Students will be growing hemp at the school for that component of the program, not cannabis.
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