CHICAGO, Dec. 11, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Seed Talent, the cannabis industry’s leading employee enablement and training platform, launched the cannabis industry’s first-ever Role-Based Assessments, with support from NAMCE. Designed to address the unique challenges faced by professionals in the sector, Assessments aim to level the playing field for cannabis employees while providing focused growth pathways for professionals.
“After gathering feedback from industry professionals and companies alike over the last few years, the challenges we heard were consistent, and it was clear the solution required an outside the box approach,” said Kurt Kaufmann, CEO of Seed Talent.
The challenges Seed Talent identified include:
- Insufficient means for employees, including self-taught and legacy individuals, to convey their abilities to prospective employers.
- A lack of uniform educational standards, leading to the emergence of exploitative entities offering worthless certifications.
- Employers struggling to pinpoint promising candidates amidst a vast pool of applicants, including visibility into often-overlooked current employees.
- The sheer quantity of content complicates the process of determining what training is crucial for excelling in specific roles.
Seed Talent, alongside the cannabis community, aspires to rise above these challenges with the introduction of Role-Based Assessments, focusing initially on roles such as Budtender, Cultivation Agent, and Extractor. These evaluations delve into the distinct skill sets required to excel in such roles, consolidating them into a comprehensive three-part Assessment to determine an individual's competency level. Upon completion, individuals are recognized as Entry, Skilled, or Advanced, highlighting both their strengths and areas ripe for development.
“Assessments will serve as a solid step forward in bridging the gap between cannabis professionals and their employers, particularly for high-volume cannabis-specific roles. We are excited to build upon these initial Assessments through industry feedback to ensure that this solution makes our industry more approachable, equitable, and scalable,” says Kaufmann.
So, How do They Work?
Start with the Entry-level Assessment for a desired industry role. Each Assessment is a pre-requisite to advance to the next level. Participants will be certified for the highest-level Assessment that they achieve! Upon completion, Seed Talent will provide a digital certificate for each participant’s determined competency level. After completing the Assessment, there is a brief survey for participants to help fine-tune the process to better serve the entire cannabis community.
Upon full commercial launch of the offering in early 2024, professionals and employers will be able to better communicate role readiness through the sharing of the Assessment results, as well as create more targeted learning pathways based on skill or knowledge gaps identified through the Assessment reporting.
Seed Talent invites everyone to participate in their pilot program, where they are offering these Assessments free through the balance of 2023! Current Seed Talent users will find Assessments under their Course Library upon login. New users can sign up now to access Assessments and a suite of free courses: https://app.seedtalent.com/signup
About Seed Talent: Seed Talent operates in more than 1,500 dispensaries across 24 states, providing unparalleled access to education and skill-building resources for cannabis professionals, brands & retailers. Founded in 2020, Seed Talent's mission centers on building mutual prosperity between employers and employees through the advancement of professional skillsets.
Contact: Kurt Kaufmann
Seed Talent
Kurt@seedtalent.com
872.262.0743
