IDFPR Responsible Vendor Training Organization

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

State-Mandated Industry Compliance Training

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.

Disjointed Cannabis Laws & Industry Guidelines

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.

Project Sponsor: Elevated Education

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.

Elevated Education’s Business Problem

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.

Elevated Education’s Constraints

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.

1. Engaging Cooperation & Analyze Requirements

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.

2. Instructional Design & Creative Process

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.

• Content Sequence
• Narrative Story Writing

• Topics & Story Arc
• Learning Activities

3. Build, Test & Modify eLearning Curriculum

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.