Page 40 - BusinessWest March 7, 2022

Colleges
Continued from page 37
operations in different parts of the country,” Swanker said. “They work together to inform the current content, what needs to be covered, and develop the curriculum.”
This professional input from outside AIC is key, she added. “They’re the ones who are experts in the cannabis field, and the ones constantly helping us update materials and discussions. Also, we’re finding many of the students enrolled in the program are already in the field working, and they’re coming to us with information and knowledge. The dis- cussion in the classroom is that much more enriching because of the prior experience they’re bringing.”
AIC leaders were quick to recognize the coming workforce needs in cannabis when the college developed its programs, Swanker said, and also found the Cannabis Control Com- mission’s focus on diversity and social equity to be appealing as well. “That’s something that speaks to us as an institution and fits our mis- sion. That was just another attractive part of it.”
High Hopes
Swanker said interest in AIC’s cannabis pro- grams remains strong. “When we launched it, we had a tremendous number of inquiries, and that remains at a very high level, which is very encouraging.”
And why not? According to a February 2021 jobs report issued by Leafly, the world’s largest cannabis website, legal cannabis supported
321,000 full-time jobs in the U.S. at the time, and since then, tens of thousands more jobs have been created in states like Massachu- setts, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, making cannabis one of the most robust job-creation engines nationally. In Massachusetts, adult-use cannabis sales crossed the $2 billion threshold last year.
In short, both nationally and regionally, this fast-growing market offers plenty of employ- ment and entrepreneurial opportunities for years to come, and for a wide range of skill sets, Hayden said.
“We’re really at the start of it. This is a new industry with new opportunities for people looking to get into a new career area or take the skills they already have and use it in this new sector. If you’re an accountant or book- keeper or human-resources specialist, then there are job opportunties within this industry for you.”
Which is why programs to educate the next wave of the cannabis workforce are expected to multiply and expand.
“The industry has a need for high levels of sophistication in terms of business manage- ment, marketing, and the like. I think we’re going to continue to see it grow,” Hayden added. “At some point, there might be too many companies trying to start up, but not yet; right now, they’re all trying to take advantage of opportunities to get in and grow.” u
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
Credit
Continued from page 39 “Obviously it can boost our sales and we hope it
makes purchasing cannabis easier for people.”
Ultimately, Perrier said, credit cards are part of evolving their
business and staying ahead of the curve.
Meanwhile, he and Polatol have several projects on the horizon
that promise to bring more innovation to the cannabis industry in Western Mass.
The first project involves the partners opening a dispensary
at the former Sierra Grill restaurant in Northampton featuring products from the Honey Brand, a California-based company that makes cannabis oils that can be vaped or consumed as edibles.
Perrier and Polatol have also purchased a former Western Mass Electric Company building in Easthampton that they are convert- ing into a canning facility for cannabis seltzer.
Finally, the two are close to unveiling a cannabis-delivery busi- ness that would allow customers to order cannabis from an app, pay for it online and have the purchase delivered to their door.
Perrier summed up their activity by joking, “If you don’t inno- vate, you die.”
Right now, the partners are educating the skeptics and naysayers who come into Dreamer and can’t believe credit card transactions are both safe and legal.
Perrier expects people to have questions, because it’s such a dif- ferent concept for the cannabis business.
“As the first ones to offer credit cards, we have to educate the consumer,” Perrier said. “I think credit cards will be widely accept- ed in the coming years, but for now we just want to make it avail- able for our customers as another way to pay for their purchases.”
In the long-term Perrier would like to see cannabis purchases become as routine as a trip to the liquor store.
“No one thinks twice about charging a liquor store purchase on a credit card,” he said adding that credit card acceptance makes it possible for cannabis purchases to eventually become more nor- malized and mainstream. u
40 MARCH 7, 2022
CANNABIS
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