FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS?
not really–just questions I want to answer!
(1) Is there a difference between correspondence and distance education courses?
(2) Regarding Module 2—Why should I pay for this module? I know how to speak in public!
(3) Why should a funeral celebrant be paid an hourly rate?
(4) Why isn’t it OK to practise as a funeral celebrant without proper training?
(5) Refund Policy.
(1) Is there a difference between correspondence and distance education courses?
College diploma and module courses are essentially distance education. However, they differ from traditional correspondence courses in that a substantial part of our educational method involves fieldwork in the real world of ceremonies.
The most valuable learning resource in every module is the knowledge and experience of cooperative, professional celebrants. We assist students in making contact with practising celebrants, and for some modules you will need to connect with a celebrant who is exceptionally creative (for example, Module 5).
In most modules, students are required to attend at least three different ceremonies conducted by three different celebrants, although we encourage attendance at as many ceremonies as possible. There is a structured learning process that students must follow when analysing each ceremony in depth.
We define the term celebrant in its broadest sense. For example, a celebrant may be the mayor of a city presiding over a citizenship ceremony. It is also particularly valuable to attend ceremonies from cultures other than your own.
Sometimes films can provide useful insights into ceremonial traditions. For example, the film Monsoon Wedding offers valuable perspectives and may be included in your analysis. Such observations should be recorded in the Learning Journal, which is a requirement of every module.
Seriously practised simulated ceremonies are also very advantageous. Detailed reports on such ceremonies, or if possible, videos, are a great help to the learning and assessment process. Many of our students are already practising celebrancy. Studying / practising by means of a college course, we hope, will greatly enhance a celebrant’s professionalism and improve their practical skills.
(2) Regarding Module 2—Why should I pay for this module? I know how to speak in public!
The first thing I would like to communicate is that the college does have a responsibility when we certify that you are qualified by this module – that you really are competent in public speaking for the ceremony.
Unfortunately, and please do not take this personally, our experience quite often has been that people who produce all sorts of documentation and references that they are competent public speakers are quite often not competent at all.
I concede to you that public speaking in funeral parlours where there are established public address systems, is not as demanding as large weddings, which are quite often held outside or in difficult venues, where there are no other public address facilities. This means that the celebrant must be able to project his/her voice, judge their breathing well, and ensure that their diction is really clear and professional.
(If your tutor is not qualified to assess you, built into your Module 2 is a fee of $A75 to pay a really well-qualified voice person to diligently assess a student of this module on the use of voice, the right level of emphasis, and feeling in the reading of poetry. For weddings outside or for funerals by the graveside, one needs genuine competence in the use of the various kinds of microphones and portable PA systems. If such a qualified person professionally assesses someone like yourself, we are satisfied!
Also, I need to point out that Module 2 contains a great deal of organisational and choreographic information that is basic to all three diplomas. It is, I admit, mostly geared to weddings, which is the flagship ceremony of any culture, but the principles of which apply to all ceremonies.
For example,
(a) FIRST MOVE: THE PACKAGE
(b) SECOND MOVE: THE INTERVIEW
(c) LISTENING SKILLS
(d) BODY LANGUAGE
(e) POETRY AND MUSIC
(f) CHOREOGRAPHY
(g) MIXED CULTURES AND RELIGIONS
(h) SAME-SEX CEREMONIES
(i) PA SYSTEMS
(j) THE VALUE OF MARRIAGE
(k) ACOUSTICS AND SOUND
(l) AN EFFECTIVE REHEARSAL—Readers
(m) MORE ON REHEARSALS (Kirkley)
(n) THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY ITSELF
(o) CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND TENSION EASING
(3) Why should a funeral celebrant be paid an hourly rate?
What I find is that celebrants who accept the low fee, in the end, lower their standards and tailor the amount of work they do to the low fee.
I find that the hourly rate is the only fair way because I, like you, cannot half do the job. I have also found that people like you and I give funerals away because it takes too much out of us both in the preparation and recovery.
Another angle is the hourly rate gives freedom to the family to ask you to do two or three interviews with other friends and relatives. Once this is done, the necessary checking processes become much longer, because one must check back the final eulogy and ceremony with those whom you have quoted and those whom you have used as a source.
Most (not all!) Funeral directors are about money and not adding to their bill, but they are also about power. It took me a long time to realise this.
My eulogies can be found in my book “Ceremonies and Celebrations,” but I am happy to share any of them with you or any celebrant!
Finally, I would like you to know that in the College of Celebrancy’s Funeral Diploma course, we demand the high standard that you observe!
(4) Why isn’t it OK to practice as a funeral celebrant without proper training (Why not learn on the job?)
Module 1 is just the first part of the Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy.
You then do Module 2 and then Module 4.
It is clear to me that many of the celebrants in Australia do not know what they are doing and what harm they are doing. When a person “learns on the job”, it becomes “victim-based learning”. Mistakes are made. Sometimes these mistakes do lasting psychological harm. It is not fair to grieving families. A skilfully prepared funeral really assists people in grief. A second-rate funeral can exacerbate grief and extend it for years.
And if people think they are “trained” with a two- or three-day course, they are kidding themselves. They don’t know what they don’t know.
It has another sinister effect: if entry into the profession is the result of “cheap” and inadequate courses, the participants do not hold themselves or their profession in any esteem.
It pains me to see that many are not educated or transformed by a course of study which should be absorbed into their being. Transformation takes time.
And a transformative course of study should result in the attitudes, skills, and knowledge that distinguish a professional celebrant from obvious amateurs and learners—(unethically) dealing with people in grief and ritualistic need.
5) Refund Policy.
If the International College of Celebrancy cancels or postpones a distance education course for any reason, we will refund all monies paid for that course unless we can make alternative course arrangements acceptable to the student.
Once a student pays for one or more modules and has received the distance education course materials, they are deemed to have started the course, and so no refund is payable. If a student pays fees for more than one module and then wishes to cease the study within the thirteen weeks (three months) allowed for each module, the college will not refund the fees for the first module but will refund the amount for all other accredited modules paid for less $150 per module in administration fees.
Temporary suspensions of study (extensions) will be given on application to your assigned tutor. These extensions will be for a 3-month period and will incur a fee of $A100. The commencement date for the following modules will begin at the end of the extension.
The time allowed for each module is 13 weeks. No refund will be given if a student withdraws after the 13 weeks allowed for the module have commenced, unless they have taken advantage of the two exceptions stated above.
International College of Celebrancy (Est.1995) 