Arylene Westlake-Jennings: Grow courses allow students to set career goals sky-high

Mary Jane, bud, pot, green, cabbage, ganja, 420. No matter what they call it, do teenagers really need a full-blown TAFE course to be shown how to grow weed?

I’m betting some have educated themselves on the fine art of horticulture for this very purpose, albeit with these clandestine gardens confined to garages and storerooms across suburbia.

But West Australians could soon access government-subsidised courses in growing and cultivating pot now that Victoria’s Federation University is offering a Certificate III in medicinal cannabis cultivation and production.

The course is on the WA’s priority industry qualification list for 2024, which basically means when a provider here offers the certificate, the government will subsidise the course.

Is that a queue I see forming outside TAFE already?

But our country is no stranger to the weird and wonderful in terms of training.

You can do a Certificate IV in circus arts over at Swinburne. Of course, who wouldn’t want to learn the art of beer making at Margaret River’s TAFE campus?

In the US, it gets even more bonkers. Michigan State University once ran a seven-week online social studies course titled Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse Atastrophes and Human Behaviour.

So, a completely legit qualification in marijuana doesn’t seem all that out there anymore.

In fact, the State Government has already set aside $2 million to support the development of a medical cannabis facility in Collie, as the South-West town leaves coal mining behind.

The Australian medicinal cannabis industry is currently worth around $250 million and is predicted to grow by 40 per cent each year for the next five years. It is expected to create hundreds of manufacturing, agriculture, and research and development jobs along the way.

Thus, if gardening and crop cultivation interest you, why not be one of the first to learn this very specific and likely in-demand skillset?

And if the jobs aren’t available upon graduation, it could prove lucrative anyway…

DISCLAIMER: This publication does not condone the production of illicit substances.