Funeral Service Apprentice job description

Pennsylvania's resident interns serve 12 continuous months, work at least 40 hours a week, and complete at least 35 cases on the way to a full funeral director license. Every licensing state sets its own version of that apprenticeship, and the Handbook puts the usual length at 1 to 3 years under a licensed funeral director or manager. BLS publishes no wage line for apprentices. The nearest is morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers, the licensed job the apprenticeship leads to, with a median of $55,010 in May 2025 and a lowest tenth under $33,350.

Core Duties and Responsibilities

An apprentice learns the director's job by doing it under supervision, and the states count the work in cases. Illinois asks for a year with at least 24 funeral directing cases and 24 embalming cases. Ohio's funeral-director-only apprenticeship runs 24 months and at least 50 funerals, and North Carolina asks for 12 months with at least 25 funerals or 25 embalmings, depending on the license sought. Those cases cover the director's O*NET tasks: preparing remains, gathering the facts for death certificates and burial permits, embalming, meeting with families about the obituary and the casket, removing remains from the place of death, and coordinating services with cemeteries and crematories.

Common Skills and Technologies

The skills are the director's. Active listening and social perceptiveness lead O*NET's list, followed by service orientation, speaking, and coordination. Microsoft Office covers the paperwork, and in a preparation room the embalming pump and trocar are part of the training.

Education, Training, and Career Path

The Handbook says the apprenticeship can come before, during, or after mortuary school and the national board exam. That exam comes in two separately scored parts, arts and sciences, each with 170 scored items in 170 minutes, and a candidate must pass both. Texas runs a provisional program of up to 24 consecutive months with 45 supervised cases. Georgia requires 3,120 hours over at least 18 months, Florida pairs a one-year director internship with a one-year embalmer apprenticeship that can stretch to three, and Michigan asks for a year, 2,080 hours, and at least 25 embalmings. Colorado will require an apprenticeship of a year or longer once its licensing law takes full effect January 1, 2027.

Sources: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Funeral Service Occupations, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/funeral-service-occupations.htm. O*NET 30.0, 39-4031.00 Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/39-4031.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 39-4031, https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm. Pennsylvania State Board of Funeral Directors, https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dos/department-and-offices/bpoa/boards-commissions/funeral-directors.html. International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards, https://theconferenceonline.org/examinations/.