Kim Rivers Discusses Training for Marijuana Dispensary Jobs

(Newswire.net — March 20, 2018) Tallahassee, FL — The cannabis industry has seen a boom in the recent years, thanks to more U. S. states legalizing the medical use of marijuana. With this boom comes the creation of new jobs, which are rising steadily as more cannabis businesses are opening throughout the states where medical marijuana has gained legality. Kim Rivers, the chief executive officer for Trulieve, a Florida-based marijuana dispensary company, discusses the importance of training in this relatively new field, especially among cultivation workers and eventually, dispensary agents.

“As with any other fields, marijuana dispensary employees need to have the knowledge and training required to do their jobs correctly,” says Rivers. “However, this kind of training isn’t available at schools, so dispensaries have to train new hires themselves from scratch, which consumes not only time but also other resources.”

According to Rivers, since state regulatory agencies are not offering marijuana dispensary education, companies are expected to receive applications from people who know little, if anything, about the job. It can become overwhelming for a marijuana dispensary to determine which personnel to hire out of the hundreds of people who applied for the job. In Florida alone, applicants do not need a certification although they do need to be over 21 years old with no felony convictions. This means that there is no shortage of people applying at marijuana dispensaries. However, if there were at least one or two applicants who received marijuana dispensary training, the whole hiring process would be much easier for the company. In addition, those who received training have an advantage over the other applicants.

“Basically, marijuana dispensary training isn’t only beneficial to marijuana dispensaries, but to job applicants as well,” River adds. “Training at the dispensary or company level ensures consistent patient care and a positive experience for customers of the dispensary operation.”

Trulieve has embarked on a quality training program in its own company operations, incorporating a wide variety of tools to give employees the information and skills they need to assist patients in the best possible manner. The company is using video training tools, which can be updated in real time to provide consistency across its network of thirteen dispensary locations across the state of Florida. Other companies are following suit, and specialist training organizations are springing to life in states where medical cannabis has become legalized. “It’s great that more and more people are seeing the importance of marijuana dispensary training and that entrepreneurs are starting to make this happen,” says Rivers. “With our own training tools and employee training protocols, we’re definitely headed in the right direction and I look forward to seeing more focus on training in the cannabis industry.”