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 | 18 Semester Hours

ENG 1113 English Composition I – 3 Semester Hours

FST 1113 Mortuary Anatomy I – 3 Semester Hours

FST 1313 Funeral Directing – 3 Semester Hours

FST 1513 Restorative Art I – 3 Semester Hours

FST 2423 Business Law – 3 Semester Hours

Social/Behavioral Science – 3 Semester Hours

 

Freshman | Second Semester | 17-19 Hours

MAT 1313 College Algebra or higher or Natural Science Elective – 3-4 Semester Hours

FST 1123 Mortuary Anatomy II – 3 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

Academic Elective – 2-3 Semester Hours

Sophomore | First Semester | 17 Hours

ACC 2213 Accounting I – 3 Semester Hours

FST 1214 Embalming I – 4 Semester Hours

FST 2713 Psychosocial Aspects of Grief & Death – 3 Semester Hours

FST 2613 Microbiology/Pathology – 3 Semester Hours

FST 2821 Current Issues in Funeral Service Technology – 1 Semester Hours

Social/Behavioral Science – 3 Semester Hours

 

Sophomore | Second Semester | 16 Hours

FST 1224 Embalming II – 4 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 Semester 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 in the Directory of Accredited Programs. To request a printed copy of this program’s rates, go to Funeral Service Technology Office, Room 27, Hawkins Building, Scooba Campus or by email at khurt@eastms.edu or by telephone (662) 476-5100. 

 

PROGRAM INFORMATION

2024

• Total Enrolled: 20  
• # of New Students: 22  
• # of Grads: 17  
• Timely graduation: 17
• Graduation rate: 100% 
• Did not Finish: 0 
• Overall employed: 100% 
• Employed in funeral service: 76%

2023

• Total Enrolled: 38  
• # of New Students: 20  
• # of Grads: 13  
• Timely graduation: 13
• Graduation rate: 87% 
• Did not Finish: 10 
• Overall employed: 92% 
• Employed in funeral service: 85%

2022

• Total Enrolled: 45  
• # of New Students: 26  
• # of Grads: 10  
• Timely graduation: 10/10
• Graduation rate: 91% 
• Did not Finish: 8 
• Overall employed: 100% 
• Employed in funeral service: 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	Takers	School Pass Rate	National Pass Rate
2024 Arts	13	77%	78%
2023 Arts	10	70%	78%
2022 Arts	10	50%	69%

 

Single Year	Takers	School Pass Rate	National Pass Rate
2024 Sciences	16	69%	73%
2023 Sciences	7	78%	69%
2022 Sciences	7	71%	64%

Accreditation Program Accredited by ABFSE: Associate in Applied Science - Funeral Service Technology

Initial Accreditation 1975/Last comprehensive review 2023/Next comprehensive review 2030

Re-accreditation: October 2023 for period of 7 years with progress report due February 15, 2024 (see below) Most recent Accreditation decisions:

• April 2013 accreditation extended to October 2020. Probation continued to April 2021. Final decision delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic.
• 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.
• April 2022 - COA reviewed an updated assessment plan submitted February 2022. The plan appears to be lacking attention to Standard 10.1.1a. An updated plan is due for COA review by September 1, 2022.
• October 2022 - Updated assessment plan accepted by COA. Administrative Probationary Accreditation for failure to pay accreditation renewal fees.
• February 2023 - Administrative Probation resolved. Program in 'Good Standing.'
• October 2023 - Reaccreditation for seven (7) years with a progress report to verify that course descriptions for all courses are uniform across all sources of information; provide an updated document retention policy for Funeral Service Technology; verify that the new curriculum has been implemented.
• April 2024 - Submit revised follow-up report by September 1, 2024 to address stipulations.
• October 2024 - Stipulations satisfied.