Est. In 2023.
Est. In 2023.
Our NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy is a recognised qualification for those wishing to become a professional funeral celebrant.
This course will help you develop the skills, knowledge and confidence to support grieving families and create meaningful, personal funeral services.
You will learn how to work with families with care and compassion, write heartfelt ceremonies, understand funeral service structure, and deliver services with warmth, confidence and professionalism.
You will be taught by fully qualified NOCN celebrants who work full time within the celebrancy profession, bringing real experience and practical knowledge into your training.
£2,795.00
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The School of Civil Celebrancy are pleased to offer the NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy training course.
| Title: | NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy |
| Accreditation: | This course is accredited by the National Open College Network (NOCN). |
| Cost of the course: | The cost of this course is £2795. This course is VAT exempt. |
| Booking the course: | To book your place on the course, we ask that you first complete the Pre-Course Readiness Check. This is a simple document that helps us understand your interest in celebrancy, your current understanding of the role, and whether you may need any support before starting the course.
Once your Pre-Course Readiness Check has been completed and reviewed, you can book your place online. Simply select the course date you wish to attend, click Add to Basket, and then follow the information provided within the shopping cart. Payments can be made by PayPal, credit card, debit card, or bank transfer. All bookings must be made online. If you choose to pay by PayPal, you may be able to pay in instalments. This will depend on your own PayPal account status and the options available to you at the time of booking. |
| Course duration: | This course is run over three consecutive days and we allow you ten months to complete this course. Allowing you to study at your own pace. We fully understand that we have busy lives. That’s why our course is designed to be flexible and accessible. Allowing you to study at your own pace, from anywhere in the world, through our user-friendly online Learners’ portal. Once you have booked the course, you can get started. |
| Course start time: | Our course times are 10:00 am to 4:30 pm, giving you flexibility to manage everyday tasks. We also offer evening support sessions from 7.30 pm till 8.30 pm. Please note that you will have homework to complete on days 1 and 2 of your course. |
| Venue: | This course is taught in the comfort of your own home using Zoom and our online learning portal. Throughout your course, you will receive face-to-face teaching, tutor support, guided learning, practical activities, and access to course materials designed to help you build the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to become a professional celebrant. Please see our blog post about our Zoom classroom, please click the link to see this post. |
| Brief: | Our NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy is a recognised qualification for those wishing to become a professional funeral celebrant.
This course will help you develop the skills, knowledge and confidence to support grieving families and create meaningful, personal funeral services. You will learn how to work with families with care and compassion, write heartfelt ceremonies, understand funeral service structure, and deliver services with warmth, confidence and professionalism. You will be taught by fully qualified NOCN celebrants who work full-time within the celebrancy profession, bringing real experience and practical knowledge into your training. |
| Requirements: | You must have undertaken foundational celebrant training before you can attend this course. Our course will take you from your foundation training through to an NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy qualification. You must have basic computer skills to complete this course and to use our online learners portal. |
Our NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy is designed for those who wish to become a professional funeral celebrant and support families with care, compassion and confidence.
Funeral celebrancy is a deeply meaningful role. It is about helping families honour the life of someone they love, while creating a service that feels personal, respectful and true to them. This course will help you develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to work with bereaved families and create funeral services that are thoughtful, heartfelt and professionally delivered.
During the course, you will learn how to meet with families, gather personal information, write meaningful ceremonies and structure a funeral service with care. You will also develop your skills in public speaking, service delivery, professional practice, communication, equality, inclusion and client care.
This diploma is suitable for those who are new to celebrancy, as well as those who may already have some experience and wish to gain a recognised qualification in funeral celebrancy.
You will be taught by fully qualified NOCN celebrants who work full-time within the celebrancy profession. This means your training is based on real experience, practical knowledge and a genuine understanding of what it means to support families at one of the most difficult times in their lives.
As a fully qualified funeral celebrant, you’ll not only have the incredible privilege of making a profound impact on people’s lives by helping support families through their grief and remembrance, but you will also have the confidence and professional credibility that holding a recognised qualification brings. You will have the assurance that you have the knowledge and skills required to meet or exceed strict industry standards. Your role as a funeral celebrant will be both fulfilling and rewarding, knowing that you have achieved quality benchmarks set by a recognised UK awarding body.
Your course also includes a year’s membership to the Civil Celebrant Connections (CCC), offering you membership, bespoke insurance, and a supportive community. For further information on CCC, please click here.
Online learning is an excellent way to study because you do not have to travel to a training venue; you can fit studying around life’s demands, allowing you to work through the course at your own speed and enjoy the journey without the pressure of imposed timetables.
Our easy-to-use online course, together with our support, enables you to achieve your Celebrancy qualification in the way that best suits you.
NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy
This course is accredited by the National Open College Network (NOCN).
Accreditation means that our celebrancy training courses and qualifications are accredited through NOCN, one of the UK’s recognised awarding organisations. Accreditation means our courses and assessments have been independently checked to ensure they meet recognised national standards for quality, professionalism, and learning. This helps give learners confidence that their qualification is genuine, respected, and professionally recognised within the celebrancy profession.
There are no set pre-requisites; however, a good standard of spoken and written English is required for this role to ensure clear, professional, and effective communication at all times. You must have basic computer skills to complete this course and to use our online learners portal.
If you require any help or advice regarding your training, please don’t hesitate to call the School of Civil Celebrancy on 01273 974 958.
Learners will be required to show achievement of a range of relevant learning outcomes and assessment criteria, as set by the National Occupational Standard and Accrediting Body:
Successful completion of the NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy will lead to the award of a recognised UK qualification, demonstrating the participant’s competence and readiness to embark on a professional career as a civil celebrant.
At The School of Civil Celebrancy, we are committed to offering high-quality training in a way that is thoughtful, responsible, and more environmentally conscious.
Many of our courses are delivered through Zoom and supported by our online learning portal. This helps reduce unnecessary travel, fuel use, overnight accommodation, and printed materials, while still giving learners a warm, personal, and supportive training experience.
Our approach allows students to study from the comfort of their own home, while accessing professional tutor support, digital resources, and clear course guidance throughout their learning journey.
Where possible, we also reduce paper use by encouraging electronic coursework, online resources, and digital communication. Our main office is powered, where possible, by solar and renewable energy, helping us make more responsible choices as a training provider.
Celebrancy is rooted in care, compassion, and respect. We believe that care should extend not only to the families and communities we serve, but also to the world around us.
You can read more about our commitment to sustainable training. Please click on the link.
For a detailed explanation, please see a blog post that covers this in full. Please click here for the Blog post.
Yes, we offer this through PayPal. If you are eligible, PayPal will allow you to split your payment over three months or longer if you have PayPal credit. This all depends on your PayPal account settings and status.
We pride ourselves on our ethics and principles of fairness and accessibility. We charge what the course and the running of the course actually costs. Because we offer a self-managed learning programme, we are able to keep costs low. We don’t add money onto the training just because we can. By doing this we make the gaining of a Celebrancy qualifications more achievable for a number of people. We believe that Celebrancy qualifications should be open and available to everyone.
This depends on the level of qualification taken, your experience as a working Celebrant and the time you are prepared to commit. We allow you:
NOCN Level 3 certificate in Civil Celebrancy – six months
NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral celebrancy – ten months
NOCNLevel 3 Diploma in Naming and Family celebrancy – ten months
NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral celebrancy and Naming and Family celebrancy – twelve months
Please note that you must log into the Learners Portal within 60 days; otherwise, the portal will mark your course dormant. Please see the Booking Terms and Conditions for further information. No attendance is needed to complete this course.
As a company, we have chosen not to offer the Advanced Learner Loan. This is because it must be repaid with interest, and interest rates and repayment thresholds can change. We encourage learners to check the latest government guidance before making any decision about borrowing.
To book this course just click on the date you wish to book and then click ‘add to basket button. Then click ‘view basket’ (you can add as many items to the basket as you wish) and select ‘Processed to checkout’. You will then be required to complete the checkout process, which requires you to answer a number of questions. Now choose how you wish to pay; you have three options. PayPal, credit or debit card or bank transfer. Please note that payments cannot be taken over the telephone.
You will need to tick to confirm that you agree to and that you have read The School of Civil Celebrancy Booking T’s & C’s. Once you have pressed proceed and payment has been made or registered, an email will be sent directly to you confirming that we have received your order. This will then be confirmed via another email when the School of Civil Celebrancy have processed your order. Please note orders are processed during office hours.
Once you have booked your course, you will be able to start straight away.
If you have any questions regarding the course booking procedure or about the qualifications we offer at The School of Civil Celebrancy, please click here for further information or telephone The School of Civil Celebrancy on 01273 974 958.
The School of Civil Celebrancy produces all its training manuals electronically. These are downloadable as you work through your course.
Your certificate will be emailed to you once you have completed your course, the assessment process has been completed, and NOCN is satisfied that all learning outcomes have been met.
We do however recommend the Complete Celebrant Handbook by Han Hills. This is great resource and starts from £9.99.
For further information please see our reading list.
NOCN has been creating opportunities through learning and skills development for over 30 years. NOCN Group is an educational charity whose core aims are to help learners reach their potential and organisations thrive.
NOCN is a top fifteen Ofqual regulated Awarding Organisation.
NOCN is proud to be the very first awarding organisation to be given the ‘Leader in Diversity’ award by the National Centre for Diversity, a leader in promoting equality for all in the UK and also recognised by Ofqual, CCEA and the Welsh Government, working with a number of strategic partners in the UK and internationally.
We don’t currently offer the new Level 4 qualifications for Funeral Celebrancy (October 2023). Whilst we fully encourage CPD, in fact we believe it is a vital part of professional Celebrancy, we also recognise that different celebrants have widely different development needs. We acknowledge that our diverse celebrant colleagues work in a variety of ways and have a multitude of specialisms. To incorporate all these wonderful, advanced and specialised attributes into one Level 4 qualification would be unworkable! So we can see that necessarily the Level 4 qualification has had to limit the advanced training to a few key areas.
There might not be a qualification available for your chosen specialism or for the area in which you are developing. Individual study via reading, training, mentoring and multi-media resources can be used to achieve the required level of skill or knowledge. As an NOCN accredited organisation, we recommend that you maintain a log of your ongoing professional development including dates, methods and summary of learned content. This way all learners are able to upskill using the learning method most suitable to their learning style.
The Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy remains the best qualification in which you demonstrate your skill as a fully rounded funeral celebrant. It’s challenging, even for experienced celebrants. Once achieved, celebrants are confident they are highly qualified and have reached a level of expertise that far exceeds the Certificate in UK Celebrancy.
Established celebrants will find themselves gravitating to a certain niche, specialism or ways of working. Some choose to specialise in specific rituals. Others offer beautifully handcrafted stationary and mementos as part of their standard service. Some write their own poetry.
Some choose not to offer baby funerals (this can often be due to deeply personal reasons). Some work in teams or partnerships, playing to their strengths. These are just a few examples and they may not be for every celebrant. As long as Funeral directors and bereaved families receive an excellent service, we believe celebrants should work in their own unique way.
In our view, the Level 4 qualification is currently on-the-one-hand necessarily limited, but on the other too disparate. For advanced CPD, we would prefer to see a wider range of specialisms available from which celebrants may choose 4 or 5 to achieve the qualification. This would recognise a far broader range of gifts, talents and chosen specialist areas.
It would also allow for celebrants who work in partnerships or teams to concentrate on improving their specific skill set and / or niche.
With the possibility of future regulation for funeral celebrants, it is important that the recognised highest standard for a rounded funeral celebrant is the Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy, and that the celebrant industry remain united on this point to avoid splintering into a profusion of niches.
The Level 4 qualification will suit some celebrants as their next step for CPD however, it is not for everyone and remains one option. There are a plethora of others to suit experienced, Diploma qualified funeral celebrants.
The School of Civil Celebrancy are not currently a CPD training organisation but offer CPD through the Civil Celebrant Connections (CCC). For further information on CCC, please click here.
For further Frequently Asked Questions, please click here.
| Available Start Date | June 23rd 2026 – Monday to Wednesday – 3 days, September 7th 2026 – Monday to Wednesday – 3 days, November 23rd 2026 – Monday to Wednesday – 3 days |
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