Green Flower Institute Training: Cannabis Industry Training
At Goodness Growth Holdings, we were excited to partner with Green Flower as a founding member of the Green Flower Institute (GFI). This new training program offers unique, standardized cannabis industry education, with a goal of promoting increased knowledge and equity in the cannabis industry.
The program offers three different tracks: Dispensary Associate, Cultivation Technician, and Manufacturing Agent. Each track consists of 15 hours of online training, broken up into two different units. The first unit, which each participant takes, covers Cannabis Health, Safety and Compliance; the second unit covers information and training specific to that track. After completing the program, each participant receives Dispensary Associate Certificate, Cultivation Technician Certificate or Manufacturing Agent Certificate. Graduates also get access to continuing education content, networking and career development opportunities, and more.
Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Stephen Dahmer, joined the Green Flower Institute as a member of their steering committee and help provided medical science expertise and guidance for the creation of the training course.
“Every aspect of our business at Vireo Health and across the Goodness Growth Holdings portfolio is intensely focused on creating incredible experiences for our patients and customers,” said Dr. Dahmer. “Educating our customers is only possible if our employees have a consistent and functional baseline level of knowledge about cannabis that is both operationally relevant and up-to-date. GF Institute’s professional credential programs focus on developing job readiness and specific skills in applied environments that ultimately means employees can become a competent cannabis professional without going to medical school or specializing in cannabis botany for the last ten years, though those levels of professional experience are obviously valuable in such a fast-growing, ever-changing industry.”
“The cannabis industry’s rapid growth in recent years has created an even greater need for the establishment of real, powerful, research-tested standards like what GFI provides for our field’s workforce,” added Gil Christie, the inaugural chairman of GF Institute.
Seven of our team members recently completed the GFI program and received either the Dispensary Associate Credential, Manufacturing Agent Credential or the Cultivation Agent Credential.
Brittany Fink, Director of Patient Services in Minneapolis, sat down to tell us about her experience earning the Dispensary Associate Credential from GFI.
Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? Where do you live now? Do you have family you want to mention?
I am the Director of Patient Services in Minneapolis, MN. I started at Green Goods in July 2021.
Tell us a little about your job – what does your average day look like? What is your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of my job is interacting with patients and sharing in their joy on how much cannabis has helped them. From those who are terminally ill to those who just want a better pain management option, I’m so proud to work for a company that supports so many people.
Why were you initially interested in doing the GFI training?
I first tried cannabis during my own cancer journey and immediately found relief; it was the main reason I wanted to work at Green Goods, actually! However, I just didn’t have the knowledge level or skillset needed to be the expert – and I know that our patients deserve to talk to experts when they shop with us.
Tell us about your experience with the GFI training. What was the course like? What did you learn from it?
The course was so easy to follow and really broke everything down in layman’s terms. Each section was built on the previous lesson and allowed for quizzes along the way to ensure that new knowledge was retained. I definitely feel like the expert, now!
How have you implemented what you learned in the GFI training?
With the addition of flower to the Minnesota medical cannabis program here in March, I feel that this course has set me up to be a successful leader just in time for the launch. I’m able to confidently speak about different parts of cannabis, the history of cannabis, and even share what the future may evolve into for the cannabis industry to my team and our patients… something I would’ve never spoke on prior to my training with GFI.
Why would you recommend the GFI training to others who are in the cannabis industry, or interested in joining the cannabis industry?
It allowed me to better understand why I’m so passionate about cannabis. It helped me realize the science behind the medicine as well as the politics behind the stigma still seen in the industry today. I feel more equipped to be the leader I need to be within the industry to ensure the right information is shared with current patients, potential patients, and our teams.