Working in the funeral industry

Every week, we receive emails from people who are interested in working in the funeral sector. If you’re a kind, thoughtful, creative and emotionally intelligent individual who might be interested in working in funerals, we need you. We’ve put together a list of resources which may help you on your journey to becoming a funeral arranger, funeral director or a funeral celebrant.

1. Join the Good Funeral Guild

The Good Funeral Guild is a community of inspired and inspiring people who are working together to improve funerals for the better. Joining the Guild will give you access to a supportive and welcoming community of funeral professionals all over the country. The Good Funeral Guild is home for the progressive funeral movement in the UK.
www.goodfuneralguild.co.uk

2. Look into professional training

If you’re interested in becoming a funeral director:

• Green Fuse
  Offers relevant training for modern funeral directors and is ideal for those who want to start their own funeral company
  www.greenfuse.co.uk

• Trade associations
  If you’re interested in a more conventional approach to training, the two trade associations for funeral directors in the UK offer their own training programmes, which could be helpful for learning the basics of funeral directing such as paperwork and administration.
  www.nafdeducation.org.uk
  www.saif.org.uk/why-join-saif/education-training

If you’re interested in becoming a funeral celebrant:

If you’d like to become a funeral celebrant, there are several courses we recommend in the UK. They all have different approaches and philosophies, so take time to explore their websites and speak to other celebrants who have completed the training. There is limited work for celebrants and a lot of competition, so get to know your local funeral directors and make sure you have an excellent web presence so clients can come to you directly, rather than being reliant on funeral directors for recommendations.

 3. Read:

• The Good Funeral Guide blog and book

• The Natural Death Centre handbook

• Do Funerals Matter? by William G. Hoy

• We All Know How This Ends by Anna Lyons & Louise Winter

• Funerals Your Way: A Person Centred Approach to Planning a Funeral by Sarah Jones

• The many books about the history of the funeral industry by Brian Parsons

4. Follow:

• The Competition and Market Authority’s investigation into the funeral industry on their website.

• The Good Funeral Guide on Twitter.

• The National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) on Twitter,The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF) on Twitter and Facebook.

• Poetic Endings, modern funeral directors in London, on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

• Arka Original Funerals, funeral directors in Brighton, on Instagram.

• Rosalie Kuyvenhoven, celebrant, on Twitter and Instagram.

• Jane Morgan, independent funeral celebrant, on Facebook.

• Humanist Ceremonies on Twitter.

• Life. Death. Whatever. on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

• Death Cafe on Twitter and Facebook.

• Coffin Club on their website.

5. Learn about grief:

• Look into Grief Training for Professionals by Rosalie Kuyvenhoven and Caroline Lloyd.

• Read It’s ok that you’re not ok by Megan Devine.

Good luck! Working in the funeral sector can be is a rewarding and meaningful career choice.