Funeral Arranger Review

My role involves running the local co op funeral care branch with my colleague and the help of the funeral director and the rest of the co op team. I carry out funeral arrangements making sure each funeral is personal and unique to our families. I look after the deceased when they come into our care at the branch. I look after our families, complete all required paper work, general household duties, invoicing for and community work to name a few.

I have developed lots of new skills since starting with the CO OP. I had no experience in funeral care before this point. I have learnt lots in relation to the rules and laws involving death and funeral care. I’ve grown in confidence as a person as you meet so many people from different walks of life. On top of this I’ve definitely improved my IT skills with the help of my assessor Sarah.

The qualification I did fits perfectly with my role, I love my job so I enjoyed my qualification. Sarah my assessor was very down to earth and supportive. There were times we’d been particularly busy in branch and I’d not fully competed my work in the set timescale but Sarah enabled me to catch up by collecting evidence in other ways such as a planned discussion.

The programme is well structured but allowed for flexibility. My assessor explained from the start what would be happening and when learning outcomes needed to be achieved. My assessor allowed me choice on what part of the qualification I wanted to do next and was very flexible when collecting evidence/observations as everyone will know the funeral industry in unpredictable.

The CO OP were fantastic allowing me mainly to complete the qualification during work time. That said my branch is quieter than some so I do appreciate if I worked at a main hub then the qualification would have taken me longer or I would have had to complete more at home. I did complete all the initial assessments in my own time at home plus some booklets on diversity, employment rights and reflection but apart from that it was during working time.

My training provider name actually changed a couple of time throughout the qualification however I kept the same assessor who was extremely supportive. I felt confident with a lot of my work but not always and Sarah, my assessor was always there with practical suggestions or strategies to help. Sarah gave me some fantastic resources and invaluable feedback to enable me to become better.

The qualification is tailored to my role, I covered areas such as funeral law, working as a team in the funeral industry, employment rights, sensitive communication plus health and safety. It gives a great foundation of knowledge you can use as a platform to become an even better funeral arranger and serve families.

There are lots of activities going off within CO OP funeral care. As an area we recently completed the challenge from Cancer Research “walk all over cancer” so in March we challenged ourselves to do at least 10000 steps a day in March whilst raising money for a great cause. We’ve set challenge of Race for life in July which we are all looking forward too!

Yes

Ethical company to work for, they have fantastic values and care for their employees as well as their customers. There’s lots of training and support and lots of employee benefits such as a good basic wage, good pension, employee discount of 10% off food, double discount two days after payday. Discount on funerals and funeral plans too.

Apply if CO OP values fit in with yours and you want to be part of a great team. I work in the funeral industry but have found everyone be really helpful and friendly. Even when I go into the food store they are always genuinely interested in how you are. Pop into your local co op whatever the sector to say hello and you’ll get a feel for the place and if it’s right for you.