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Train to be a
Funeral Celebrant

National Qualification - NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy (RQF)

We are pleased to offer the National Qualification – NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy – your stepping stone to a whole new profession!

Since founding the concept in 2002, we have trained well over 1000 Funeral Celebrants throughout the UK and from overseas on our fully inclusive training courses.  These Celebrants have won the respect and trust of both the funeral industry and bereaved families they have served.

If you believe that you have the necessary skills to enter this new profession, then please look at all the information provided here and then call us to discuss the training programme. This is the starting point to the most rewarding work you could imagine.

The type of funeral ceremony you wish to offer is of course yours, but we will give you the knowledge and skills that a Funeral Celebrant needs and you can choose to offer civil funerals, completely secular funerals, or funerals with spiritual or other content.

The decision to train for a new career in funeral celebrancy is a big one and many successful Celebrants say that their lives have been changed completely by their decision to train with us. (See our training feedback). We are always pleased to put you in touch with Celebrants who have trained with us.

Continuing development of skills in this profession is crucial and we have therefore developed a range of further courses that ensures you will be able to meet the demands of this very specialised work as you progress.

Training qualifications and accreditation can be confusing, and it is worth thoroughly investigating exactly what qualification is being offered to you.

This Diploma is the highest entry level accredited national qualification available in Funeral Celebrancy in the UK.

It is a complete qualification that does not require any other modules or elements in other subjects to be taken to achieve it and we take you right the way through the Diploma course. On successful completion, you will receive certificates from the awarding body, the National Open College Network (NOCN), that reflect your achievement.  The NOCN is a leading credit-based awarding organisation that has been creating opportunities for students and learners for over 30 years.  See http://www.nocn.org.uk

The qualification is listed on the Ofqual Register of Regulated Qualifications:

See: Ofqual Register of Regulated Qualifications

The qualification number is 601/1587/7. It has 17 units, 54 credits and 381 guided learning hours.

To become an accredited national qualification, regulated by Ofqual, training needs to meet stringent criteria related to exam content, delivery, assessment and reporting procedures.

The Diploma that you will undertake is broadly equivalent to the following qualifications:

In England & Northern Ireland Any other Level 3 qualification, such as GCE ‘A’ Levels or ‘AS’ Levels, Level 3 BTEC, NVQ Level 3, Level 3 Vocational Qualifications and other Advanced Diplomas

In Wales  NVQ Level 3, Vocational Qualification Level 3, AS and A Level, Welsh Bacclaureate Qualification Advanced, ESW, WKS, Apprenticeship Framework

In Scotland Level 6 qualification, equivalent to Highers, SVQ Level 3, Professional Development Awards, National Progression Awards and National Certificates

While there are no formal entry requirements to undertake the qualification with us, we require you to complete an application form and writing exercise, both of which enable us to consider your suitability for the training, before a place can be offered on the course.

The training programme contains a mixture of assessment methods and is operated on a pass/fail basis, the pass rate was 98.5% last year. Some parts of your training can be taken again if you should need to strengthen a weak area (a £45 + vat charge is made for each element that is retaken). We make no apologies for the fact that the training is challenging, there is much more involved than most people envisage. You will be assessed on every aspect of the distance learning and residential elements of the training programme by highly experienced and qualified tutor/assessors.

Anne Barber, Managing Director at the National Funeral Exhibition

A glimpse of the funeral celebrancy residential training course – filmed by the BBC in May 2019 for the West Midlands Inside Out programme.

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    Call us on 01480 276080

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      If you would like one of our Celebrants to conduct your ceremony, please send us the following details so that we can check availability:






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        Please note the Level 4 course is for practising celebrants only.

        * Required

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        IT Skills you will need both during your training and working as a celebrant

        Do you have the following skills:

        1. Ability in creating, naming, using, saving and retrieving files and folders.
        2. Familiarity with using your version of Word (or similar software).
        3. Understanding of toolbars and icons.
        4. Ability to copy and paste sections of text.
        5. An understanding of ‘track changes’ and how to use this function.
        6. Ability to bold, underline and italicise text.
        7. Be able to change font type, size and colour.
        8. Ability to centre text in the middle of a page and right and left justify it.
        9. Be able to alter line spacing in a document and insert a page break.
        10. Be able to use the undo and redo functions.
        11. Understand how the tab key works.
        12. Ability to use headers and footers, bullet points and numbering
        13. Understanding of the difference between ‘Save’ and ‘Save As’.

        If you said ‘yes’ to all of the above then you have good basic skills.

        If you have answered ‘no’ to any of the above then you will need to improve your basic skills before starting the course. This can be done in a few hours by using one or more of the free online tutorials available on the internet.