Continuing Education Online

1. VISA and Mastercard:

   To access your chosen course(s) immediately, payment must be made with VISA or Mastercard. You will receive an email with your order confirmation and the access link to the course(s) you purchased.

2. E-Transfer:

   For e-Transfer, please send to hradmin@ccfs.ca

3. Cheques:

   For cheques, please make payable to:
   Canadian College of Funeral Service
   Unit #1 – 1596 Regent Avenue West
   Suite #360
   Winnipeg, MB R2H 4C4

E-Transfer and cheque do not allow immediate access to your chosen course(s). You will receive an invoice by email with payment instructions. Once payment is received, you will receive an email with your order confirmation and the access link to the course(s) purchased.

*Please read: course credits are applied to either funeral director or embalmer (not both)*

• Each course is created to take approximately three (3) hours and consists of two components:
• Reading material (learning objectives and lesson notes)
• Quiz
• The course is designed for you to take at your own pace. You can do the course all in one or multiple sessions, allowing you to leave and return to the reading material and quiz as often as you wish.
• The time limit to complete the course is three (3) months from the purchase date.
• If an extension is required, a fee of $75.00 per course will be charged for an additional thirty (30) days to complete the course.

• 70% is the passing grade for all continuing education courses.
• If you receive less than 70% on the quiz, a second attempt is allowed at no additional cost.
  The quiz is graded automatically, and the system allows a second attempt immediately.
  However, you may want to review the reading material before starting the second attempt.
• If you receive less than 70% on the quiz after two (2) attempts, you must contact our office and pay an additional fee of $100.00 for a third attempt.
• The quiz may be completed in an open-book format, and you may review the reading material to answer the quiz questions.

• Upon passing a course, a certificate of completion will automatically be available to download, save, or print. Instructions are provided in the course material under the “Course Completion” tab.
• You are responsible for downloading, saving, or printing the certificate within thirty (30) days of completion. After thirty (30) days, you will no longer have access to the reading material and certificate of completion.
• Please contact our office if you require your certificate of completion after the thirty (30) days of course completion. A fee of $25.00 per course will be applied to issue the certificate of completion.

• Submission requirements vary with each provincial regulatory agency.
• A table with the submission requirements and instructions for each province is available in the course material for you to review and submit according to your provincial regulatory agency.

As a licensee, you are responsible for staying current with your provincial regulatory agency’s requirements. CCFS will not be liable for changes or if you submit incorrectly.

• You are responsible for recording which course(s) you take.
• CCFS is not liable if a course is taken twice. No refund will be issued.

Once a learner or licensee sets up an account on our website, the course(s) taken will be recorded. The learner or licensee will have access to these recorded course(s) through their account profile.

Please contact:

Canadian College of Funeral Service
Unit #1 – 1596 Regent Avenue West
Suite #360
Winnipeg, MB R2H 4C4
Phone: 888-797-9941
continuingeducation@ccfs.ca

(Not approved for credit in British Columbia and Saskatchewan)

A new profession that is making a mark in the world of deathcare is emerging in North America and around the world: end-of-life doulas (EOL doulas or EOLDs). This short, self-guided course will help you understand who doulas are, what their scope of practice is, and their potential impact on those of us who are licensed funeral professionals in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Most funeral directors in Canada understand their own profession’s history, but they may have little knowledge of the history of the end-of-life doula. This professional development opportunity will provide a succinct history of the (re)emergence of community deathcare, offer insight into present-day practices, and examine future opportunities for mutual enrichment in the growing field of end-of-life and post-death services.

This course was created to assist and guide an embalmer with hair restoration on human remains.  This course was created by an experienced wig maker, make-up artist and educator and was developed specifically for the funeral service profession.  The knowledge gained in this course will increase the embalmer’s skills to a whole new level, thereby contributing in making the viewing experience much more positive for bereaved families.  This course will cover the tools, terms, and techniques to hand laying hair for restoration on the deceased. The types of hair used and the preparation of the hair before hand-laying will be covered. The leaner will acquire knowledge about hair direction and the process for matching current hair texture, length and style. You will also learn how to utilize photographs of the deceased as reference pictures when performing hair restoration. This course will guide you in creating a full moustache, sideburns, eyebrows and filling in sections of a beard. The course is delivered in a written document and supplemented with numerous images, photographs and instructional video presentations.  (A strong wired internet connection is highly recommended when completing this on-line course due to the streaming of the video content.)

This course will cover the causes of jaundice and edema; the problems and issues that the embalmer faces; and the treatments and approaches that should be considered.  The information shared in this course will guide you to understand the issues involved and the proper treatments to overcome them so that the best possibly results can be achieved.   For the embalmer that wants to better their skills, the content in this course will help you to get more comfortable in handling these cases and will guide you in understanding the reason and purpose of various approaches.  An embalmer needs to understand the issues at hand, and to evaluate as to which treatment will be the best approach to take.  The knowledge gained in this course can help you to become more competent in handling these two tough cases to get the best possible results.

This continuing education module contains information on the various forms of disposition available in Canada as well as several other disposition methods that are being proposed or developed in other places that may be available to our client families in the near future. As funeral service professionals, it is important that we remain informed about both current and new disposition options that are either currently available or in various stages of development and acceptance. To do this, this course will address the disposition methods of earth burial, cremation, green burial, body donation, alkaline hydrolysis, and promession. We will then explore a few other possible forms of disposition, including sea burial, human composting, and mycoremediation.

When we experience death, a part of us dies as well. As part of our grieving process, we memorialize the deceased in ways that are meaningful to us, which aids in our grief work. This typically involves holding a service and keeping something from the service for you to remember the deceased; possibly a flower from the spray, a memorial card from the service, or maybe even some cremated remains in a piece of keepsake jewelry. While these are all acceptable means of memorialization, the trends in this day and age are to have something more personal, something that the bereaved can display or keep with them permanently or pay tribute to the deceased in a way that matches their personal characteristics. Memorialization helps to ensure that our family and traditions live on. As funeral service professionals, we need to embrace the needs of our ever-changing consumers and keep educated on the new and emerging opportunities that one can do with regards to memorializing their loved ones.

This course has been revised and newly updated. This module is part two in the series of courses on religion. In this module, you are introduced to the Eastern religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. Like the initial course, this module is a summary of the history of the religion and its funeral practices. This course completes the initial two part series; however, stay tuned for further modules on some of the other many religions that we as funeral professionals encounter with the families that we serve.

Conflict happens in all types of businesses, and must be dealt with effectively to maintain a healthy work environment. The demands and stresses of the profession creates much conflict in any funeral home. Understanding how to constructively deal with conflict instead of running away from it is important to maintain a healthy work environment. When conflict is mishandled, it can cause tremendous harm and hurt to both professional and personal relationships. When handled in a respectful and positive way, however, conflict provides an opportunity to reinforce the relationship between parties. By understanding what conflict is and learning how to resolve conflicts, you can maintain the strength of your personal and professional relationships.

The typical funeral professional will find themselves under a great deal of stress, and possibly feeling the effects of burnout. Stress is a normal part of our everyday life. We cannot eliminate stress completely from our lives, but we can implement strategies and preventative measures in order to minimize the effects of stress and burnout in our personal lives, and contribute to a healthier work environment in the funeral home. This course will define and describe stress and burnout and will examine their contributing factors. The course will also assist a funeral service professional to cope under pressure as it will uncover stress and burnout management strategies.

This course will discuss the roles, responsibilities and obligations of funeral service professionals in providing the best embalming results possible and a positive viewing experience for the family.

Quality embalming should not start in the embalming room. Great embalming results will, of course, depend on the effort and skills of the embalmer but what can the funeral home do to maximize the best possible results? Outside the preparation room, there is much to be done that will improve the viewing experience for the family.

This course will explore the responsibilities and obligations that a funeral director has in making funeral arrangements and how this can be used to enhance the family’s viewing experience. Management and funeral home owners also play a critical role in ensuring that quality embalming standards are provided and this course will discuss their responsibilities and obligations in ensuring that quality embalming is provided. All staff members in the funeral home have a role in contributing to the viewing experiences that families will have. Whether this role is a large one or a small one, topics discussed in this course will describe the roles and responsibilities of all staff members involved. The key is customer satisfaction.

Negotiation is an important part of our everyday lives. Through our daily actions we encounter many opportunities where it is necessary to negotiate certain issues, whether they are minor or more complex. Some of us are good at it while others are not. This continuing education module will introduce you to different negotiation styles and help you to identify and develop your negotiation skills.

This course will help identify the specialty chemicals required to treat a specific case and will also discuss the cause of the condition, the problems faced by the embalmer, the best approaches for treatment, and the proper methods of using the chemicals for each case.

The Funeral Service profession has seen dramatic changes in the last few decades. As in other professions, change has been both embraced and avoided. This continuing education module will introduce you to the issues involved with change, and provide you with strategies to implement change in your workplace.

This course will introduce you to effective methods of training apprentices/interns. Many apprentices/interns do not receive proper training that supports them and prepares them for the demands of a funeral service professional. This course will guide you to maximize the potential of the training process. Upon the completion of the course, participants will be able to fulfill their role as a sponsor/mentor to provide effective leadership that will enable them to properly train apprentices/interns by being a good role model and to challenge, support and effectively communicate with apprentices/interns.

This course is to provide you with an understanding of time management while also supplying you with tools to help you develop your skills. The course is intended for anyone within the Funeral Profession whose time is often stretched.

This course looks at Creuztfeld Jacob Disease and its implications to the embalmer. The student will learn the necessary precautions that the embalmer should take in preparing the “CJD case.” These precautions are suggested within the context of the nature of the prion that causes the disease. Relevant and up to date research is presented to the student and evaluated from an embalmer’s perspective.

This course has been revised and newly updated. This course introduces the funeral director to the “main” world religions. It is not a theological compendium of world religions but rather a summary of funerary practices as found in different religions. This course is the first part of a two part series of courses on different cultures and religions. Once you have finished this course, look out for Part 2 which will be available in the near future.

This course is a short introduction to “Aristotelean-Thomistic” ethics. The participant is asked to examine the unique character of the bereaved/funeral director relationship. The course demonstrates that funeral business should operate on a unique set of business principles. The participant is challenged to examine the decision making process and the outcomes of making ethical choices.

This course suggests how a body should be prepared for “long-term preservation.” The complications that an embalmer may encounter in holding a body for extended periods of time are studied as well as the procedures and treatments to overcome them.

This course identifies the specific concerns and issues that funeral service professionals will face during a pandemic and how to cope with them. It includes a step-by-step preparation & response plan that can be easily adopted by any size firm allowing continued and uninterrupted care to the bereaved.

This module will introduce you to the important aspects of West Nile Virus, Superbugs and their embalming implications. West Nile Virus is present in Canada and will continue to be a concern in the summer months, as long as mosquitoes are around. Superbugs are becoming a great concern and the number of cases affected is continuing to increase. The chance of human remains with West Nile Virus and Superbugs coming across your embalming table is a reality. Are you prepared to handle these cases? Are you safe? This module will assist you to gain knowledge about West Nile Virus and Superbugs. You will learn how these diseases are transmitted, how they affect the body, the safety concerns, the risks and proper handling, treatment and precautions that must be taken. Proper knowledge of these diseases will allow an embalmer to handle these cases with confidence and to create a safe and healthy work environment.

This course looks at the various microbes that the embalmer must deal with in the preparation room and their effective destruction. Some are easlily killed with basic disinfection procedures while others require more potent chemicals and more contact time. If you are not practising proper disinfection procedures, your embalming instruments, the equipment you use, and the embalming room environment will still harbour these pathogen microbes. The information shared in this course will provide you with the basic concepts and tools to provide a clean and safe working environment. The course will cover the various types of disinfectants and their effective use.

This course introduces the student to the historical significance of cremation. The student is challenged to understand cremation from various cultural and religious points of view. The student is also challenged to question modern reasons to cremation. This is the first course in a series about cremation.

With cremation here to stay, and a growing number of families who are not interring the cremated remains of their loved ones, we as funeral directors must be able to provide guidance and alternatives for them. This course will explore some of the emerging opportunities that are available for the disposition of cremated remains.