Two Missouri community colleges are now offering cannabis courses, the Kansas City Star reports. Missouri’s Metropolitan Communication College (MCC) is partnering with cannabis education company Green Flower for three not-for-credit online classes to offer certificates, while St. Louis Community College (STLCC) is offering three in-person, for-credit classes.
The MCC programs include cannabis cultivation specialist, cannabis retail specialist, and cannabis extraction and product development specialist.
The courses are not for college credit and each nine-week course costs $750.
Richard Wallace, MCC’s director of continuing education, told the Star that the college was approach by Green Flower last year, ahead of the state’s vote to legalize cannabis for adult use.
“We were able to see that this is something that we might need to, kind of, get ahead of and start offering some of these programs.” — Wallace to the Star
The STLCC offerings include an introductory lecture, a cultivation course on growing techniques with a lab component, and lab methods course on extraction techniques. The courses have space for 24-30 students and have all been filled when they have been offered.
Patrick Vogan, an assistant professor in the horticulture program who co-taught the cultivation course this spring with a manager of a local cannabis cultivation facility, noted that students in the classes have a “whole range” of knowledge coming into the class.
“About a quarter of the students in the class were already working in the industry and were looking for ways to refine and add to their skill sets,” he told the Star, “whereas many of the other students had no experience cultivating cannabis.”
Vogan added that “Students just want a good practical knowledge that will help get them employed in the industry.”
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