Does a qualification matter?

One of the most frequently asked questions is “Do you need to have a qualification to be a professional celebrant?” The quick and easy answer is NO.

Here I will explain in detail my view why the existing OFQUAL Celebrant qualification is not needed, why I believe it is a complete waste of time and money and significantly why it actually sets up many would-be celebrants to fail.

As a secondary school teacher for 23 years teaching business, economics, marketing and a range of vocational qualifications over the years, and as a senior school leader for 15 years including a headteacher, you might think it is odd that I am now saying “a qualification does not matter”. But whilst qualifications are essential for children and young people taking their first steps into the world of work, for adults we all know that good skills training, competency, testimonials and experience are far more important to success than a piece of paper.

Check out the government’s own National Careers Service and they explain how you just need to complete a “private training course”. The range of courses varies and whilst a level 3 Certificate and Diploma in Celebrancy is an option, so are many other types of celebrant training courses as well as a Postgraduate Master’s in Pastoral Care.

I completed and achieved the Certificate in Civil Celebrancy in the UK, so why am I so critical of it?

Well, with hindsight and experience, I now realise it taught me nothing useful, it was dull and boring and I would have been better off spending my time and effort back then doing other things to launch and grow my celebrant business. Most of the people I know who completed the course had education or teaching backgrounds. Others who had not written an essay in decades felt intimidated and excluded by it despite their natural talents to be a great celebrant. No one has ever asked me about or for this qualification and I now know many other very successful professional celebrants who do not have this qualification (my tutor who trained me back in the day didn’t even have it). I also know of many celebrants who have the qualification and yet have still failed to launch and grow their celebrant business. As a passionate educator I find it not only frustrating but disingenuous of many celebrant training organisations that try to suggest in their marketing that would-be celebrants need this qualification. I am pleased that more celebrant training organisations are now at least admitting (albeit in the small print on their websites) that this qualification is not needed.

So let me just deal with the 5 most commonly held myths about the Celebrancy Qualification:

1. When (and if) marriage law changes in England & Wales to allow Independent Celebrants conduct the legal marriage service, this qualification will not give you access to new legal powers. A simple look at the requirements for Celebrants to carry out legal marriage in Scotland, Australia or New Zealand will easily inform you that the current Certificate/Diploma in Civil Celebrancy in the UK does not come any where near what may be required in the future. It is often admitted that “the qualification is not great, but its the best we have”. This to me is no justification to get people to waste their time on a badly written and out-of-date qualification. When or if a proper qualification is required to access new legal marriage powers for celebrants, it will look nothing like this. Just ask any registrar about the training and assessment they completed. Any new legal marriage training for celebrants will be more like this.

2. I was also recently told by one prospective student that one celebrant training organisation they spoke to even told them that because “Funeral Celebrancy is likely to get regulated soon”, then this qualification will be needed. This again is just false. The Funeral Industry is not regulated (apart from Funeral Directors having to publish prices upfront) so to suggest Funeral Celebrants are about to be regulated is both misleading and dishonest. If I wanted to set up as a Funeral Director and start storing and transporting deceased people from my garage at home, I could. Whilst there are FD trade bodies and FD qualifications. None are a pre-requisite to setting up as a Funeral Director and so the Celebrancy Certificate or Diploma is certainly not a pre-requisite to be working as a Funeral Celebrant (remember the certificate requires you to write about funerals, weddings and naming ceremonies…so why would the funeral or wedding industry place value this composite and largely irrelevant award?)

3. The Celebrant Certificate & Diploma are not recognised as any sign of competency in the Funeral or Wedding Indsutry, just like having a Phd in Retail Business is no indication that a person has the social and persuassive communication skills to work in retail. To complete the qualification you have to complete coursework (mainly in the form of essays) and whilst students are assessed in how well they write about many of the skills needed, their actual competency in these skills is not. E.g. Students have to be able to prove they can write a couple of eulogies, but these eulogies could be a complete work of fiction and completely removed from the reality of the person who has died. It is hardly surprising why so many FDs request newly trained celebrants to first get some experience and testimonials before they give any bookings to them. Most FDs have learnt not to equate that the achievement of the Celebrancy Certificate or Diploma as a sign of competency, they have seen too many average and poor celebrants with the “certificate or diploma” to trust it.

4. Delivering the qualification is absolutely no sign that the quality of the celebrant training given is adequate. Organisations like NOCN and City & Guilds sell “accredition” to training organisations for about £500 per course. Some training organisations employ assessors who may be qualified to internally mark a level 3 academic or vocational qualification, but they may not be an experienced celebrant or even a professional celebrant at all! The feedback given to students will be on their spelling, their grammar, and whether their “evidence” has met the marking criteria. Many celebrant training organisations do not give thorough training and development on how to run effective client meetings and instead focus simply on the writing of ceremony even though they are inextricably linked. The key to repeat bookings as either a funeral or wedding celebrant is the feedback from the client experience. And yet this is often completely neglected in many celebrant training courses in addition to other business topics. This is especially limited or simply a “bolt-on” with some rushed 5 day courses and correspondence courses.

5. Newly trained celebrants would find their time is much better spent building up their network and links in order to secure bookings, rather than writing essays for a qualification they don’t need. It is potentially harmful to those people who think by simply having a “nationally accredited qualification” they will then get bookings. I challenge anyone to show me the evidence that a qualification help and does not hold newly trained celebrants back. Whether it is visiting and re-visiting Funeral Directors, Wedding venues or developing your wedding celebrant website and social media presence, these are the things that will help newly trained celebrants to get bookings. It is the effort and their effectiveness of these activities which will solely determine whether they are a successful professional celebrant or not. This is where people need highly effective and successful skills training.

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