GUELPH - It was a job fair with a difference on the University of Guelph campus Wednesday.
Eleven companies from the cannabis industry were on hand in Peter Clark Hall for the first ever Cannabis Job Fair on campus.
Organized by the University of Guelph Cannabis Growers Club, it was an opportunity for students to learn more about the many jobs available in the burgeoning legal cannabis industry.
“LIke everybody else in the industry, we are starved for workers,” said Jeanine Lassaline-Berglund, vice-president of operations for 48North Cannabis Corp.
“I think finding people that have had experience in Canada is particularly difficult, because most of the people who come to us with experience are coming to us from the black and grey markets," said Lassaline-Berglund, whose company operates three grow locations in the province.
"It’s hard sometimes to qualify their experience and how it’s going to fit into a legal operation, but we don’t overlook that. It’s certainly not a barrier to entrance into this industry.”
Schools, including the University of Guelph, are jumping on board, creating cannabis-specific courses as part of their curricullum. But given how new legal cannabis is, there just isn't the experienced workforce out there right now.
Austin Baiton, president of the U of G Cannabis Growers Club, said that creates a huge window of opportunity.
“They have a really tough time finding people," Baiton said. "A lot of companies are going to the international agriculture worker program to actually fill the jobs they need. They’re importing workers.”
The Cannabis Growers Club has 136 members since starting up last October on the day cannabis became legal in Canada. The club teaches members how to grow cannabis, or how to grow it better, at home. Households can grow four plants legally.
Baiton said he has heard the industry is going to create as many as 100,000 jobs in Canada over the next 10 years.
The online job site Indeed currently has 1,068 jobs listed in the job description "cannabis."
“A lot of people are probably qualified to work for these companies already and they don’t even know it," Baiton said, adding that it's a great time to get in on the ground floor in a growth industry.
"A lot of people think they need to be cannabis consumers or need to be educated on cannabis, when really they only need to be educated on their specialty. The cannabis companies still need an accountant, they still need marketing.”
That's a sentiment echoed by 48North's Lassaline-Berglund.
“The reason why we’re at the University of Guelph today is because, as we know, this university is a specialty in agriculture. These are plant science kids, entomologists, agrologists…all those kind of skills we look for when we think about growing cannabis," she said.
“But, we’re not limited to that either. We run a business like anyone else, so financing, engineering, HR, marketing…all those skills are important too.”
Lassaline-Berglund said many companies are hiring based on values and who will fit the culture of their company. The specific skills they can teach internally.
“For a lot of the licence producers, ramping up and growth are high priorites right now,” she said.
A couple of students attending the job fair said it's a great opportunity.
"It's a boom industry now that it's legal," said Mike, who preferred not to have his last name used. "The stigma's gone. It's a whole new world. They're legit companies now just like anyone else you might want to work for."
