ST JAMES, Jamaica (JIS) — Funeral home workers in Kingston, St Andrew and surrounding areas will be able to access training and certification come January 2017.

The Montego Bay Community College (MBCC) will be taking its Associate Degree programme in Funeral Services and Mortuary Science to the Corporate Area.

Dean of the Faculty of Workplace Development and Continuing Education at the college, Karen Gayle, said the expansion of the programme to the Corporate Area is aimed at satisfying the growing demand for certification in the vocation.

She noted that the MBCC is the only tertiary institution in the Caribbean to offer the programme.

“The advertisements are out for the Introduction to Embalming course, Funeral Service Principles, Ethics and Critical Thinking in Funeral Services. Those three core courses will be offered in Kingston,” she informed.

Gayle was addressing a Think Tank at the JIS Montego Bay office on Monday (November 7).

She said the college is encouraging funeral home operators to use the opportunity to have their employees certified.

“Encourage your workers to enrol in these programmes, because this is training, this is about improving their performance on the job and ultimately improving productivity at the workplace,” she noted.

The MBCC has been receiving technical support from Humber College in Canada for the Funeral Services and Mortuary Sciences programme, which was launched at the institution just over a year ago.

Gayle told JIS News that a number of funeral homes in western Jamaica have been supporting the institution by doing part-time lectures as well as offering their facilities for students to gain practical experience.

The MBCC, which was opened in 1975, has an enrolment of 1,920 students and a staff complement of 111 at its St James and Westmoreland campuses.