Funeral Service Education

Careers with a Funeral Service Education Degree

Graduates may find employment in: crematory and cemetery operations, funeral home management in family owned businesses and corporate business. It will also allow for employment in other Health Sciences professions that desire funeral industry experience.

Graduates of the Funeral Service Education program will demonstrate a factual, conceptual, and applied understanding of:

• Funeral service marketing and merchandising
• Business management practices
• Small business management
• Funeral service counseling
• Regulatory compliance
• Cemetery and crematory operations
• Funeral service sciences

Our faculty believe that success in the program requires a commitment of time and energy to your studies. To help with this requirement, the college offers an advisor to assist with planning your path and career goals.

Aims and Objectives

The central objective of the Funeral Service Education AAS degree at Lake Washington Institute of Technology is to educate students in every phase of funeral service so that program graduates are prepared for entry-level employment in funeral service.

In support of this objective the following are the Program’s Learning Outcomes:

• Explain the importance of funeral service professionals in developing relationships with the families and communities they serve.
• Identify standards of ethical conduct in funeral service practice.
• Interpret how federal, state, and local laws apply to funeral service in order to ensure compliance.
• Apply principles of public health and safety in the handling and preparation of human remains.
• Demonstrate technical skills in embalming and restorative art that are necessary for the preparation and handling of human remains.
• Demonstrate skills required for conducting arrangement conferences, visitations, services, and ceremonies.
• Describe the requirements and procedures for burial, cremation, and other accepted forms of final disposition of human remains.
• Describe methods to address the grief-related needs of the bereaved.
• Explain management skills associated with operating a funeral establishment.
• Demonstrate verbal and written communication skills and research skills needed for funeral service practice