IDFPR Responsible Vendor Training Organization
Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation (IDFPR) Manages the Responsible Vendor Training According to the Cannabis Regulation & Tax Act.

Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation (IDFPR) Manages the Responsible Vendor Training According to the Cannabis Regulation & Tax Act.
As the legal medical and recreational cannabis industry expands across Illinois, companies within this new marketplace notice a lack of professional quality training to EDUCATE their workforce and maintain compliance. Illinois’ “Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act” provides for the controlled legalization of adult use cannabis in the state.
And the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) is charged under the Act with implementing and administering MULTIPLE aspects of the “Adult Use Cannabis Program,” including the licensing in the state and oversight of dispensing organizations, dispensary agents, and agent education providers.
Recently, Green CulturED partnered with Elevated Education to bring to market the Illinois Responsible Vendor training, the first-ever comprehensive training program REQUIRED for cannabis industry workers in the state. Elevated Education came to Green CulturED with an idea to create an accredited compliance training for cannabis industry workers to meet government compliance.
The piecemeal, state-by-state nature of cannabis legalization prohibits the development of overarching federal laws to regulate the industry. The novelty of the cannabis industry and shifting public opinion about cannabis means that there are more “mainstream” people obtaining jobs in Illinois, increasing the NEED for government cannabis industry compliance training, which may have been largely ignored in the past.
This is becoming a problem for cannabis dispensary owners, managers, and staff. From growers (who may have started as enthusiasts) to retail Dispensary Technicians (who may have been hired for their past customer service or retail experience), the need for CONSISTENT compliance training across the cannabis industry is becoming very apparent. Whether cannabis companies blaze through the challenges or go up in smoke trying, the cannabis industry provides an insightful case study for Illinois employers who must meet the state’s Responsible Vendor annual training requirements.
More often than not, substantial training and development programs are being required to meet compliance requirements as the cannabis industry becomes legalized. With no national standards or “best practices,” owners of cannabis businesses must look to state laws for worker training requirements if ANY exist. Some states require employee registration; others require education on specific topics, like patient confidentiality. Still, other governments have no guidelines or cannabis industry compliance training at all.
A research study by Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research called “Training and Practices of Cannabis Dispensary Staff” published by Nancy A. Haug, Dustin Kieschnick, James E. Sottile, Kimberly A. Babson, Ryan Vandrey, and Marcel O. Bonn-Miller. The study revealed just over half (55%) of dispensary employees have had any FORMAL training regarding cannabis and only 20% had any type of specific medical or scientific training.
Of that group, 94% reported that even though untrained, they provided advice, guidance, or counsel to patients. Research also found recommendations in response to a patient’s conditions are frequently counter (or opposite) to existing empirical literature of recommended cannabis use for disorders. Unfortunately, consumers look to dispensary agents for cannabis ADVICE than physicians when making decisions.
Elevated Education is a woman and minority-owned firm dedicated to providing high quality, instructional sound training, and educational content. With many years of experience creating courses and curriculum for corporations, colleges and universities, the military, and a wide variety of industries, they have worked CLOSELY with clients to identify and fulfill all of the cannabis industry compliance training requirements.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), Division of Professional Regulation, Cannabis Control Section approved Elevated Elevation as an approved Responsible Vendor training provider. This designation authorizes them to DELIVER training for Dispensary Agents, including Dispensary Technicians (aka “Budtenders”), Managers and Agents-in-Charge. The Responsible Vendor training provides Dispensary Agents with compliance industry training on the following cannabis-related topics:
The Responsible Vendor compliance training requirements include topics similar to the service-industry education required for serving alcohol called “TIPS” (Training for Intervention ProcedureS) but is tailored to the Illinois cannabis regulatory structure. All dispensing agents currently working in Illinois MUST receive Responsible Vendor training from a provider approved by Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) to ensure they have been trained before agents can legally make sales to customers.
A rapidly changing legal landscape in Illinois resulted in immense growth in the cannabis industry, creating an education and skills gap that required instructional product development. An eLearning compliance training course was developed by Elevated Education as an IDEAL solution to effectively train state-wide, with consistent, auditable, and accurate information that’s needed in Illinois’ industry.
The legalization of the cannabis industry meant new retail infrastructure, new distribution rules, new licensing rules, and a transition to a new legal framework for growers. Seeing an opportunity to HELP their clients maintain compliance with regulatory laws and frameworks, Elevated Education became one of the very first accredited cannabis compliance industry training companies in the state of Illinois.
Their team wanted to create an eLearning course that they could sell to their clients, to train frontline customer service staff and management in the retail cannabis marketplace. Elevated Education partnered with Green CulturED’s Instructional Design for the entire “Responsible Vendor” compliance training product development and VALUED their team’s ability to deliver on the following:
As Elevated Education needed to develop the “Responsible Vendor” compliance training while regulations were still being drafted, this created SEVERAL constraints:
1. The first constraint was determining what would be in the compliance training. It’s hard to determine the length of a course, the instructional activities, or how long it would take to develop that course when you can’t CLEARLY identify the specific content required (new regulations hadn’t been drafted). Using our ingenuity, we researched and drafted content, making it easier for the experts to vet information.
2. A second constraint was the limited availability of internal technical staff to contribute to the instructional design and product development. The DEMAND for their expertise was extraordinary for Elevated Education’s work as they were required to meet the impending legalization date that was scheduled in the state of Illinois.
3. A third constraint was that Elevated Education did not have an operational Learning Management System (or LMS). We had to get up to speed on the inner workings of what Illinois required in the compliance training since every LMS influences the overall course structure and experience. As this was a government regulated training product to be sold by Elevated Education, we also needed to pay very close attention to the user experience to keep future support costs down to MAXIMIZE profitability. In addition, there were government “Responsible Vendor” reporting requirements to validate the learner’s identity, their training records, and certificates.
A rapidly changing legal landscape resulted in immense growth in the cannabis industry and created an education and skills gap. Green CulturED was ENGAGED by Elevated Education to design and create an eLearning solution to train Dispensary Agents in the retail cannabis marketplace. Through our partnership we had the expertise in developing custom instructional products, and for our ability to pull together a project team to execute and deliver the project within a strict time frame.
The Responsible Vendor compliance training was developed with Articulate Storyline by the Instructional Design team and delivered via Learning Management System (LMS). The compliance training also includes government regulation-based assessment to CONFIRM learning. As a self-paced course, it allows individuals to prepare themselves to work in the rapidly growing industry and allows companies to invest in training for their staff without the cost of developing it themselves.
Elevated Education has been able to establish a strong position in the marketplace, building on its first-mover advantage in the space. After receiving approval from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) for the course they have been able to market and sell the compliance training to new and existing industry workers.
“They were a lifesaver and stepped in at the last minute when it seemed as though we weren’t going to be able to complete our curriculum on time. Their team provided guidance and offered solutions that not only delivered our project on time but a product that we are PROUD of. Their expertise and general know-how was a breath of fresh air.”
Elevated Education has been able to establish custom training programs for clients and continues to build out its curriculum, based on its industry insights and expertise. The growing demand for the Responsible Vendor training provides a SOLID revenue opportunity for Elevated Education and by partnering with Green CulturED was able to bring their in-person classroom “Responsible Vendor” compliance training 100% online.
During this initial accreditation process and as a result of past successes, Elevated Education engaged Green CulturED, to take on the development of this as an additional eLearning project. These additional government compliance training types are MUCH larger and more technical in nature to develop the Responsible Vendor training, yet all the training modules had the same deadline and were completed on time and budget.
Elevated Education had to be honest about their available bandwidth (infrastructure, expertise, and staff) to successfully create certified or credentialed eLearning content. This type of eLearning requires many EXTRA steps, so they took a look at their staff availability, expertise, and knowledge for tackling this project in-house and that’s when they decided to partner with Green CulturED.
As with all our projects, in collaboration with Elevated Education, we established guiding principles to help us MEET the project goals within the constraints. For example, “What are trade-offs we could and couldn’t make?” and “What would govern our decisions?” We ascertained that the timeline was critical, and the information had to be precise, ensuring correct interpretation and application of the regulations.
We also created a list of non-critical enhancements that could be made post-launch. The project could be DELIVERED on time meeting Elevated Education’s objectives, while some value-added features could be included in a later release. Learning objectives for each program were also established, making sure that the approach focused on the application of the new knowledge acquired by all of the learners.
The goal of the Responsible Vendor compliance training was to provide comprehensive and efficient training to staff who require BASIC knowledge of cannabis, its effects, standard operating procedures, and the regulations that they must always adhere to.
A challenge with compliance-oriented training can be the amount of legalese and, do’s and don’ts they contain, so significant FOCUS was placed on creating engaging instructional activities relevant to the compliance information. It was essential that the learner understand why it was important to learn the information that was trained on.
The knowledge couldn’t just be because they “had to” – a common challenge with compliance-oriented training. They had to see the importance of their work in the grand scheme of the NEW legalization. As a result, several scenarios were included that showed the potential consequences and personal impact on cannabis industry workers if they are not following the compliance procedures and government regulations.
Rather than SOLELY focusing on the punitive consequences of the legislation, a storyboard was created that included the following:
Without any draft regulations to work from, subject matter experts identified likely topic areas and wrote the content in each of the IDENTIFIED areas, such as standard operating procedures for retail distribution. A series of individual “Responsible Vendor” training modules were outlined along with associated learning activities and content.
As further information became available the structure of the outlined modules needed to change. Some topics were condensed, others expanded and elaborated upon, and a narrative approach was CREATED that followed a new employee through their learning journey. Partway through the build phase, the development of retail or adult-use cannabis was legalized and, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) was responsible for creating completely new cannabis regulations.
Consequently, the approach taken was to focus on the common areas across all state regulations and note exceptions as they occurred. For example, the legal age of consumption was CONSISTENT across the entire state of Illinois, and in cases where more substantive differences existed, links to specific information on the respective state regulations were created. As the project progressed multiple rounds of versions were created which were each reviewed and modified accordingly following feedback.
The Responsible Vendor online training was successfully delivered and launched on time. As part of the LAUNCH, Green CulturED worked with Elevated Education to develop a video highlighting the breadth of information covered, and the interactivity and applied nature of the course to support sales. We provided the creation of a promotional video sharing screenshots and training excerpts.
The Illinois Responsible Vendor compliance training was VERY well thought-out, but the client faced many challenges – not just in coordinating the accredited content, but also in entering an emerging market – new cannabis industries – that recently became legal due to government law changes established in the state of Illinois.
Providing the value of continuing education credit was tricky, however, due to the sensitive nature of the cannabis topic. So, Elevated Education applied to the state to become accredited and establish a LONG-standing relationship with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) to coordinate and manage the accreditation details of the cannabis industry compliance training.
Thanks to our extensive in-house Instructional Design expertise and knowledge, Green CulturED partnered with Elevated Education to overcome the challenges and successfully launched the compliance training. Thus, Green CulturED has become responsible for knowledge management since we helped GUIDE the process during the Instructional Design process after Elevated Education received its accreditation. The curriculum has also been very well-received by Illinois’ cannabis industry workers. Not only have we had STRONG enrollments, but we have received positive feedback from learners about the training.
Application Process. Applicants must complete attestation, submit a photo, proof of residence, government identification, and you will provide disposition forms for previous criminal offenses to Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR).
Locate a job first... a person must be hired by a dispensing organization before they can apply for an agent identification card for a an adult-use or medical cannabis dispensing organization with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR).
It's a process... according to the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, applicants for an Adult-Use Cannabis Dispensing Agent Identification Card must have a fingerprint-based criminal history background check. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) complies with regulations concerning a criminal background check. It requires fingerprint vendors to confirm the identity of the individual seeking to be fingerprinted.
This identity verification form must be completed for any individuals applying for consideration for licensure in Illinois. The out-of-state fingerprint vendor or Illinois live scan vendor chosen to take the out-of-state resident’s fingerprints must be completed as written confirmation that a valid government issued driver’s license or state Identification (ID) was presented and that the ID provided belongs to the individual person being fingerprinted.
All owners, managers, employees, and agents... involved in the handling or sale of cannabis or any cannabis-infused products employed by an adult-use dispensing organization or medical dispensing organization as required by the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act.
Within ninety (90) days... the training must be completed before or after the first day of employment at a dispensary, whichever is later. Training received outside of the ninety (90) day window will not meet the training required by the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act.
Annually. The two (2) hour Responsible Vendor training must be completed annually as part of the eight (8) hours of training mandated by the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act each year.
A wide variety of topics... the Responsible Vendor training must include the following topics:
Yes. Provided it meets the training requirements of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act.
Yes. For example, our Responsible Vendor Certification is two (2) hours of training time, so Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) would still require to provide six (6) hours of additional training per year. In any case, a dispensary agent, agent-in-charge, and principal officer must receive training on the following topics as required by law:
Yes. All Principal Officers, must meet the eight (8) hour training requirement found in the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act. However, only the agents that are required to receive the Responsible Vendor compliance training are those involved in the handling of cannabis.
Yes, but... only if the secondary site is owned by the same entity as the medical cannabis dispensing organization at which the agent works. The IDFPR provides a dispensing organization agent shall only be required to hold one card for the same employer regardless of what type of dispensing organization (adult-use or medical) license the employer holds.
No. An agent-in-charge must be a full-time employee of the dispensary, but an agent-in-charge cannot be the agent-in-charge of more than one dispensary. However, the agent-in-charge of a Medical Cannabis Dispensing Organization may serve as the agent-in-charge for an Adult-Use Cannabis Dispensing Organization operating at the same dispensary site.
Yes. Agents with Medical Cannabis Dispensary Agent Identification Cards can serve purchasers at an Adult Use Dispensing Organization License located at the same site as the medical cannabis dispensary is allowed by the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act provisions.
No. The definition of "dispensing organization" in the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act only includes dispensing organizations with the same site or adult-use dispensing organization licenses. The definition does not include medical cannabis dispensing organizations that have not obtained the same site license from the IDFPR. Because medical cannabis dispensing organization without the same site license is not a "dispensing organization" does not authorize the licensing of individuals to work at medical cannabis dispensing organization.
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