Funeral Directors and Embalmers
Job description
Funeral Directors coordinate all aspects of funeral services.
Embalmers prepare the remains of the deceased for the funeral and burial.
Environment
- Controlled ambient temperature
- Biological agents
- Odours
Main tasks
Funeral Directors
- Discuss with the deceased person’s family the nature of the funeral services, how to dispose of the body, and the funeral expenses.
- Ensure the transportation of the body between the place of death and the funeral home.
- Publish death notices in newspapers.
- Supervise the preparation of the body and plan funeral services.
- Coordinate funerals and cremations.
- Fill out legal documents.
- Recruit, direct, and supervise staff.
- Maintain financial records, prepare statements, and order merchandise.
- May perform the same duties as embalmers, as required.
Embalmers
- Preserve, sanitize, and prepare bodies for funeral services.
- Apply cosmetics to restore bodies to their normal appearance.
- Supervise personnel.
Hourly wage
Not available.Job prospects for 2024-2028
Les 2 champs de sélection ci-dessous vous permettent de comparer 2 régions. Les données des régions seront automatiquement mises à jour à la sélection. Par défaut, la province de Québec est sélectionnée pour la première région.
Job prospects for 2024-2028
Job prospects
All of Québec
Good
All of Québec
Non available
Total jobs for 2023
All of Québec
900
All of Québec
na
Gender distribution
All of Québec
Not available.
- 47.5% Female
- 52.5% Male
Not available.
- 47.5% Female
- 52.5% Male
Job types
All of Québec
Not available.
- Full time
- Part time
Not available.
- Full time
- Part time
Yearly wage on 2020
All of Québec
$60,400
All of Québec
Other characteristics
All of Québec
- None
All of Québec
- None
Sectors of activity
All of Québec
Not available.
-
NAICS 81100% of jobs
-
NAICS 81100% of jobs
-
NAICS 81100% of jobs
-
NAICS 81100% of jobs
-
NAICS 81100% of jobs
-
Others0% of jobs
All of Québec
Not available.
-
NAICS 81100% of jobs
-
NAICS 81100% of jobs
-
NAICS 81100% of jobs
-
NAICS 81100% of jobs
-
NAICS 81100% of jobs
-
Others0% of jobs
Training and requirements
Formation
Most training programs are offered in French only.
College
DCS in techniques de thanatologie
Code : 171A0
Placement rate: 85.7%
4.8% of graduates pursue further studies
Also required
- From 12 to 20 months of on-the-job apprenticeship program.
- Licence to embalm.
Funeral Directors
- Funeral service company permit.
Sometimes required
- A Class 5 driver’s licence may be required or may be an asset.
Main skills and characteristics
Skills
- Data collection
- Social perception
- Active listening
- Information processing
- Coordination
- Oral expression
- Service oriented
- Time management
- Reading comprehension
- Written expression
- Negotiation
- Critical thought
- Active learning
- Result evaluation
- Judgment and decision-making
- Solving complex problems
- System analysis
- Teaching
- Human resource management
- Persuasion
- Monitoring operations
Abilities
- Verbal skills
- Speech clarity
- Oral comprehension
- Speech recognition
- Awareness of issues
- Written comprehension
- Written expression
- Information organization
- Deductive reasoning
- Selective attention
- Classification
- Idea generation
- Originality
- Time sharing
- Inductive reasoning
- Near vision
Knowledge and attributes
- Capacity to establish and maintain interpersonal relations
- Capacity to work under pressure
- Sense of responsibility
- Spoken and written bilingualism (French and English)
- Knowledge of customer and personalized services
- Sense of initiative
- Capacity to be discrete
- Friendliness
- Respect others
- Impeccable appearance
- Knowledge of chemistry
Interests
- Direct, organize, and manage
- Work in sales or client service
Personality profiles (RIASEC)
- Enterprising
- People with this profile prefer having responsibilities, influencing others and responding to challenges.
- Realistic
- People with this profile prefer carrying out concrete tasks and being physically involved in what they do.
- Social
- People with this profile prefer to be in contact with others, in particular to entertain, help or teach them.
Official name of the NOC 62201
Funeral directors and embalmers
Job titles
- Embalmers
- Assistant funeral director
- Funeral director
- Funeral home director
- Funeral services director
- Apprentice embalmer
- Undertaker assistant
Skill type
Sales and service
Last update: January 29, 2026
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