For over 20 years Civil Ceremonies Ltd has been offering training in celebrancy, a relatively new profession that involves creating and delivering ceremonies such as funerals, weddings and naming ceremonies for babies and children. The qualifications offered are the NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy and the NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Celebrancy: Naming and Couples.

Both diplomas involve extensive distance learning and a residential week where learners gain the skills and knowledge to be able to set up their own self-employed, flexible business when they leave the services. Due to the skills required, including writing, public speaking and IT skills, many service personnel find celebrancy to be a flexible and satisfying further career.

Civil Ceremonies is registered with ELCAS, the Enhanced Learning Credit Scheme, which is used by the forces to provide Enhanced Learning Credits (ELCs) to personnel. Civil Ceremonies is pleased to have trained service leavers to become professional celebrants.

ELCs are available to personnel for three separate years, which do not have to be consecutive, and can be used up to 10 years after someone has left the forces. There are two levels of ELCs. The lower level entitles the learner to £1,000 per year, which can be claimed after four years of service and a higher level entitles them to £2,000 per year and is available after eight years of service.

Courses must be delivered by an authorised provider and must be a Level 3 or above national qualification and can include: overseas qualifications, postgraduate qualifications foundation degrees, vocational training and other academic qualifications.

It is worth noting that ELCs cannot be used to pay for books and materials, travel, accommodation and food required during the training. With Civil Ceremonies’ courses, the learner pays for their own food, travel and accommodation for the residential part of their training.
The first step in becoming an approved learner provider is to apply to be considered for registration and details are available on the link below.
https://www.enhancedlearningcredits.com/learning-provider/registration-provider

There are criteria for successful registration, including submission of two consecutive years of accounts showing positive net current assets. Once registered, the details of the training provider and courses offered are available on internal systems for personnel to view and select the courses they are interested in. At Civil Ceremonies, we also ask for an application form and writing exercise via our usual application system. If this is successful, we notify the learner, and they start their internal process, which is in three parts, and they apply for their Enhanced Learning Credits to be used. There is an online ELCAS portal, which is the method by which training providers are paid as the learner completes their training.

On completion of the course, learners complete an evaluation for ELCAS, and these are important for a training provider to retain their registration. This evaluation is comprehensive, including direct questions plus an opportunity to write about the training received, and this is shared with the training provider. Civil Ceremonies has received the following evaluations recently.

‘I would highly recommend Civil Ceremonies to anyone wishing to pursue a career in Celebrancy. The course material is in-depth and I am confident that it has prepared me to launch my own Celebrant business on successful completion. The knowledge of the training providers is fantastic and their understanding of the ELCAS system made it even easier for me to navigate.’

‘Very professional liaison and engagement. The course material was top quality and mailed out in good time. The course provider was always happy to answer questions and go through any aspects that required explanation.’

One ELCAS learner also wrote directly to us:

‘Can I say, how thoroughly enjoyable I found the residential course. It was one of the most professionally run courses I have ever attended, from the additional learning material provided right through to the fantastic accommodation. However, it was the professional presentations and feedback, from all the lecturers, that really made the course; thank you to everybody who inputted into it.’

All training providers know how valuable such feedback is and this encourages other military personnel to look further at the courses we provide.

Becoming an ELCAS approved provider is a good service to provide to military personnel who are leaving the services and Civil Ceremonies has found it beneficial to be involved in the ELCAS scheme and would recommend it.

If any learning provider wants to talk to us about working with ELCAS, then please do get in touch.

Anne Barber
Managing Director
Civil Ceremonies Ltd