Funeral Service Technology

Graduates are qualified to become funeral service practitioners who are duel licensed as embalmers and funeral directors. Practitioners prepare and preserve the body before interment. Other common duties include meeting with families, helping families plan services, planning and organizing various types of services, placing obituary notices in newspapers and handling paperwork. Many practitioners have opportunities to own their own business.

Additionally, graduates may look for careers with funeral service or allied mortuary careers such as burial insurance, casket sales representatives, burial vault, and other funeral related merchandise and equipment manufacturing companies. There are also positions such as autopsy assistants, pathology assistants, forensic field investigators, as well as licensed entities which deal with tissue and organ procurement. For these jobs, the degree received through a funeral service technology program often is sufficient for entry-level employment with some of these allied entities.

Lastly, many entrepreneurial-minded graduates may choose to utilize entities such as florists, perpetual care cemeteries, monument companies, cremation care, removal, and embalming services as an initial business activity before expanding such into a traditional full-service funeral home operation. And for some who have access to capital, there is the opportunity to purchase a funeral home from a current owner desiring to sell or who does not have family interest in continuing the business.

The employment outlook for funeral service practitioners according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment of morticians, undertakers and funeral directors is expected to grow by 7% from 2014-2024. The median yearly salary of funeral practitioners is $45,960, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Experience, level of employment, and geographical location influence the earning potential. Those who own their own funeral homes and are very successful can earn much more. Benefits may include paid holidays and vacations, health insurance, and pension plans.

Admission to the Funeral Service Technology Program at East Mississippi Community College requires all applicants to have acquired either a GED or high school diploma. The program further requires all applicants to have achieved either a score of 17 or higher on the ACT or a particular score on the ACCUPLACER test. Please see the program advisor or a counselor for additional information regarding testing times, locations and minimum scores.

To complete the program, students must complete all Funeral Service Technology courses with a minimum grade of “C.” Students must have active, hands-on participation in a minimum of ten (10) clinical embalming cases and may be required to perform such clinical exercises during the weekend at an off-campus clinical site.

A student who has taken one or more Funeral Service Technology courses, but who withdraws from the program and does not return for a three (3) years or six (6) semesters excluding summer semesters, must re-enroll under the current Funeral Service Technology curriculum at the time of re-enrollment and must re-take all required Funeral Service Technology courses.

Coursework taken at any funeral service program, which is transferred for credit to EMCC, will be evaluated and considered for acceptance in meeting the curriculum of the Funeral Service Technology program. However, no course in Comprehensive Review or a similar course designed for preparation for the National Board Examination as administered by the International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards, will be accepted for transfer credit.

The central objective of East Mississippi Community College's ABFSE-accredited Funeral Service Technology program 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, EMCC’s FST program has adopted the following Learning Outcomes: PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES Upon completion of the accredited program, students will be able to: 1. Explain the importance of funeral service professionals in developing relationships with the families and communities they serve. 2. Identify standards of ethical conduct in funeral service practice. 3. Interpret how federal, state, and local laws apply to funeral service in order to ensure compliance. 4. Apply principles of public health and safety in the handling and preparation of human remains. 5. Demonstrate technical skills in embalming and restorative art that are necessary for the preparation and handling of human remains. 6. Demonstrate skills required for conducting arrangement conferences, visitations, services, and ceremonies. 7. Describe the requirements and procedures for burial, cremation, and other accepted forms of final disposition of human remains. 8. Describe methods to address the grief-related needs of the bereaved. 9. Explain management skills associated with operating a funeral establishment. 10. Demonstrate verbal and written communication skills and research skills needed for funeral service practice. Recognizing the importance of the care of the bereaved, the department has designed a curriculum not only to educate the student in the care of the deceased, but also in the care of the living. To meet this need, classes are offered in funeral directing, funeral merchandising and management, and psychosocial aspects of grief and death.

Freshman | First Semester | 16 Semester Hours
ENG 1113 English Composition - 3 Semester Hours
FST 1113 Mortuary Anatomy I - 3 Semester Hours
FST 1231 Clinical Embalming I - 1 Semester Hours
FST 1313 Funeral Directing - 3 Semester Hours
FST 1513 Restorative Art I - 3 Semester Hours
FST 2423 Funeral Service Business Law - 3 Semester Hours

Freshman | Second Semester | 16-17 Semester Hours
MAT 1313 College Algebra or Natural Science Elective - 3-4 Semester Hours
FST 1123 Mortuary Anatomy II - 3 Semester Hours
FST 1241 Clinical Embalming II - 1 Semester Hours
FST 1413 Funeral Service Ethics & Law - 3 Semester Hours
FST 1533 Restorative Art II - 3 Semester Hours
FST 2323 Funeral Merchandising and Management - 3 Semester Hours

Sophomore | First Semester | 17 Semester Hours
ACC 2213 Accounting I - 3 Semester Hours
FST 1213 Embalming I - 3 Semester Hours
FST 2251 Clinical Embalming III - 1 Semester Hours
FST 2713 Psychosocial Aspects of Grief & Death - 3 Semester Hours
FST 2613 Microbiology/Pathology - 3 Semester Hours
FST 2811 Current Issues in Funeral Service Technology - 1 Semester Hours
Social/Behavioral Science - 3 Semester Hours

Sophomore | Second Semester | 19 Semester Hours 
CSC 1113 Computer Concepts - 3 Semester Hours
FST 1223 Embalming II - 3 Semester Hours
FST 2261 Clinical Embalming IV - 1 Semester Hours
FST 2273 Thanatochemistry - 3 Semester Hours
FST 2813 Comprehensive Review - 3 Semester Hours
SPT 1113 Public Speaking I - 3 Semester Hours
Humanities/Fine Arts - 3 Semesters Hours

Work-based Learning is available as an additional elective based on opportunity and requirements.

 

National Board Examination pass rates, graduation rates, and employment rates for this and other ABFSE-accredited programs are available at www.abfse.org. To request a printed copy of this program’s pass rates and rates, go to Funeral Service Technology Office, Room 27A, Hawkins Building, Scooba Campus or by email at khurt@eastms.edu or by telephone 662.476.51010.

 

PROGRAM INFORMATION

2021

• Total Enrolled: 36  
• # of New Students: 20  
• # of Grads: 13  
• Timely graduation: 12/13
• Graduation rate: 87% 
• Did not Finish: 4 
• Overall employed: 100% 
• Employed in funeral service: 92%

2020

• Total Enrolled: 47  
• # of New Students: 21  
• # of Grads: 6  
• Timely Grad*: 6/6 
• Graduation Rate**: 67%   
• Did not Finish***: 5   
• Overall % Employed: 83%   
• Employed in FS: 83% 

2019

• Total Enrolled: 46  
• # of New Students: 21  
• # of Grads: 4  
• Timely Grad*: 4/4  
• Graduation Rate**: 50%   
• Did not Finish***: 19   
• Overall % Employed: 100%   
• Employed in FS: 100% 

2018

• Total Enrolled: 23 
• # of New Students: 21  
• # of Grads: 5  
• Timely Grad*: 5/5 
• Graduation Rate**: 71% 
• Did not Finish***: 11  
• Overall % Employed: 80%   
• Employed in FS: 80% 

*Timely graduation = complete program in 1 1/2 times designated program length.
**Graduation rate reflects cohort graduation rate (% of students from original chort        completeing  in the designated year) 
***Left before complete the program; did not finish.

 

NATIONAL BOARD STATISTICS

Single Year	School Pass Rate	National Pass Rate
2021 Arts	78%	68%
2020 Arts	80%	73%
2019 Arts	75%	72%
2018 Arts	83%	77%

 

Single Year	School Pass Rate	National Pass Rate
2021 Sciences	67%	57%
2020 Sciences	80%	64%
2019 Sciences	75%	63%
2018 Sciences	100%	71%

Accreditation Program Accredited by ABFSE: Associate in Applied Science - Funeral Service Technology Initial Accreditation 1975/Last comprehensive review 2020/Next comprehensive review 2023 Re-accreditation: April 2013 accreditation extended to October 2020. Probation continued to April 2021. Final decision delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Most recent Accreditation decision: May 2020 – program placed on Probation following comprehensive review subject to evaluation of a compliance report (due September 1, 2020) to demonstrate implementation of an effective assessment plan. October 2020 – additional assessment data required by February 2021. April 2021 – Program returned to good standing (Probation concerns satisfied). Program will submit an updated assessment plan by February 12, 2022.