Celebrant Training – An Insiders Guide
Almost all of us have been to a naming ceremony, wedding ceremony or funeral ceremony officiated by either a registrar or a religious minister. These ceremonies are almost guaranteed to follow a rigid formula and apart from change of names, each type of ceremony is identical to the last, similar to “painting by numbers“.
Society is changing, in that there are a welcome plethora of cultural influences in our lives. At the last UK Census 63% of us said we never take part in any formal religious practice. So, why include religion in any of our life event ceremonies?
Many of us are now turning to the alternative of Secular Civil Celebrants, who will consult with you to produce a truly bespoke ceremony and signpost many special elements that you can include in your special ceremonies.
Where are these Civil Celebrants? They are here now, ready to provide a personal, meaningful and tailor made service.
There are now a number of organisations within the UK that provide training for existing and prospective celebrants, some are good, some are OK, most are not so good – we know because we have tried them.
Most of the available Celebrant Training Courses are residential courses of 2-4 days duration, with limited (if any) ongoing support and in groups of up to 20 people with just 1 tutor. Ask yourself this – Do you think that a man or woman off the street can become a competent celebrant in such a short period of time? A competent celebrant works on a single ceremony for 10 to 12 hours until they and their client are happy with the outcome. How many ceremonies do you think students on such courses complete? 1, maybe 2?
These courses, in essence provide candidates with a basic toolkit and basic instruction on how to use those tools. Would you trust someone who comes to your home to fix the plumbing who has a nice shiny toolbox but only has had 4 days training? Would you? This approach does not necessarily build client confidence.
Having utilised such courses in the past, we have developed another far more comprehensive celebrant training package for a similar if not lower cost. How?
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| On-Line Celebrant Training |
Although we offer traditional group training courses as well as personal tuition courses – these are mostly utilised for our franchisees and they account for less than 17% of the training we deliver. The remaining 83%+ of the celebrant training courses we deliver are via on-line / distance learning courses, which puts the student in control of when they study and how much study they do – all in the comfort of their own home / office. All the student needs is basic computer skills; an electricity supply, a smartphone/tablet/laptop/pc with internet connectivity (WiFi,3g or 4g), email facility, webcam, mic & a VOIP function i.e. Skype.
Our distance learning courses have all been designed to reflect the real world as far as possible. You will not only receive all the tools and resources that you require to be a celebrant, you will also conduct several live client interviews / fact-finds, prepare first and final draft scripts followed by you giving live ceremony presentations. You will be working on several ceremonies at the same time too, which reflects real life. At each and every stage you will receive feedback / agreed action plans from your designated Tutor. Furthermore, you will receive proactive ongoing mentor support in relation to marketing your services as well as continued access to resources.
Although we are ostensibly a secular organisation, many of our celebrants come from various faith backgrounds. They chose to train with us due to our ever growing inter-faith / multicultural society; our “dogma free” secular ethos; our bespoke, non-prescriptive, personal, meaningful and professional approach to ceremonies.
For all our Training Options, Course Choices & Course Outlines visit us at the UK Society of Celebrants for the UK’s premiere On-line Celebrant Training. Or Call / Text 07784 301070 for an informal chat or drop me a line here.