The Associate of Applied Science in Funeral Service Education

The Associate of Applied Science in Funeral Service Education is designed to prepare students for a funeral service career. All aspects of funeral service will be taught within the scope of this program. Academic and technical skills will be taught in general business areas, industry regulations and laws, embalming and restorative art skills, funeral service applications, funeral home management, grief counselling, etc.

The goal is to prepare the student for successful completion of all necessary board examinations and prepare the student for daily work rigours within the funeral service industry. The Funeral Service Education program's goals are to promote and improve the standards of funeral service education and professionalism, expose funeral service students to all aspects of the profession, and foster a desire to serve the public interest in an ethical, dignified manner. All Funeral Service Education students must take the National Board Examination to graduate from the program.

Employment Opportunities: Graduates of the Associate of Applied Science in Funeral Service Education are prepared for employment primarily in funeral home settings, although some related fields, such as embalming operations within medical college anatomy departments, trade embalming facilities, and autopsy support operations, are possible employment opportunities.

Typically, a graduate who has passed all required board examinations and has completed the required apprenticeship may be employed as a licensed funeral director/licensed embalmer. Before completing an apprenticeship and the subsequent licensure, the graduate would be employed as an apprentice funeral director/embalmer.

Aims and Objectives: The Funeral Service Education program at Ogeechee Technical College has as its central aim the recognition of funeral service personnel as members of a human services profession; members of the community in which they serve; participants in the relationship between bereaved families and those engaged in the funeral service profession; professionals knowledgeable of and compliant with federal, state, provincial/territorial, and local regulatory guidelines in the geographic area where they practice, as well as professionals sensitive to the responsibility for public health, safety, and welfare in caring for human remains.

The Funeral Service Education program also has the following objectives: to enlarge the background and knowledge of students about the funeral service profession; to educate students in every phase of funeral service and to help enable them to develop proficiency and skills necessary for the profession; to educate students concerning the responsibilities of the funeral service profession to the community at large; to emphasize high standards of ethical conduct; to provide a curriculum at the post-secondary level of instruction; to encourage student and faculty research in the field of funeral service.