Vocational Education Perspectives Funeral education is in urgent need of reform
Qingming thought coldly after being "watched"
Just past the Qingming Festival, the funeral industry was unsurprisingly watched by the Internet again: post-00 grave keepers, body makeup artists, funeral attendants, undertakers... Constantly appearing in the news headlines and hot search lists on social networks.
"Our major is called modern funeral technology and management, and there is an antiseptic plastic surgery direction below, and as a result, 70% of the students who sign up may choose antiseptic plastic surgery, and they do not know about funeral services, funeral equipment, cemeteries, etc." Shen Hongge, deputy dean of the School of Civil Affairs and Social Work of Changsha Civil Affairs Vocational and Technical College, told the reporter of China Youth Daily that in recent years, after experiencing the annual Qingming being "watched", experts and scholars in the field of funerals are trying to correct deviations: funeral is not only "anti-embalming and plastic surgery", behind the technology is more humanistic needs, "funeral itself is a cultural activity".
After the heat passed, many experts and scholars put forward "cold thinking" on funeral education and industry talent training. Social concerns have added impetus to the development of the funeral industry, but also generated some misunderstandings that need to be clarified, especially for students who plan to choose a funeral major, it is necessary to let them correctly understand the funeral industry and talent training programs.
The funeral industry should not be viewed with tinted glasses
In the eyes of the public, the funeral industry has experienced a process of not being accepted by the public, practitioners being treated differently, and breaking the feudal superstitious cognition and gradually being understood and respected.
In recent years, there has been less content about superstitions in the funeral industry in online information, and there have been more rumors about "high-paying recruitment" and "ultra-high salary" in the funeral industry.
In 2009, Yang Haibo founded the "Funeral Talent Network", one of the few job search websites in the funeral industry, to help graduates of funeral colleges and seekers interested in entering the funeral industry to find the right job. He often receives job calls asking "whether to recruit corpses or night watchmen" and "the kind of position that is 8000,1000 yuan a day or <>,<> yuan."
"This is the most misunderstood in the funeral industry." Yang Haibo said that when he entered the funeral industry, the most answered question was, "Is the salary in the funeral industry very high?" ”
Many people think that practitioners will be paid very well when they mention these "jobs dealing with dead people". Many students also believe that "because of the mystery and danger of feeling, they can get a good salary", but "this is not realistic, and there is no such position".
In fact, according to Yang Haibo's observation, the average monthly salary of funeral directors is between 5000,8000 and 00,4000 yuan. He Qinling, a "post-5000s body makeup artist" who appeared on the hot search this year, graduated from Wuhan Civil Affairs Vocational College and now works in Tianjin Funeral Service Center, where her daily work is to receive the family of the deceased, dress, bathe and make up for the deceased. According to her, the monthly salary is <>,<>-<>,<> yuan.
"I really like this job, and I hope to let the deceased walk beautifully." Ho Qinling said that the cosmetics used for the deceased were foundation, eyeliner, eye shadow, concealer, etc. purchased online, similar to the makeup of the living.
Yang Haibo found that since about 10 years ago, the attitude of students who entered the funeral industry has changed significantly, and the students before that were more pragmatic and in order to make a living, and the later students generally had better conditions at home and were more out of interest.
From the perspective of funeral education, the positive effect of social attention has appeared. He Zhenfeng, dean of the School of Life and Culture of Beijing Vocational College of Social Management and member of the Social Affairs Expert Committee of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said that in this year's independent admission examination, the number and quality of students applying for funeral majors have increased significantly.
"After 00, it is not new to engage in funeral work such as embalming and cosmetic surgeons and cemetery administrators." He introduced that it is very important to have positive, accurate and positive publicity and attention to the funeral industry, otherwise it will make the industry with a negative impression more difficult to develop.
In order to let new students understand and recognize the industry, the School of Life Culture of Beijing Vocational College of Social Management carries out entrance education when students first enter the school, and learns about the real industry through visiting funeral service institutions, watching funeral-themed films, and giving lectures by teachers and industry technical experts.
From enrollment to graduation and work start-up, students here go through a "trilogy".
During the freshman year, students participate in cognitive internships and Qingming volunteer service activities; In the second year, students will participate in a one-month Qingming internship, mainly to funeral service institutions such as funeral homes and cemeteries; During the junior year, students will participate in a one-year on-the-job internship and a top-post internship to lay a solid foundation for adapting to the job after graduation.
"Social attention can make people understand funerals more and deeper, and remove the negative impression caused by not understanding and not understanding." He Zhenfeng said that funeral is a major livelihood well-being, and he believes that more attention will win more support, and practitioners will gain more understanding and recognition, more professional confidence and a sense of career gain.
The funeral profession will have undergraduate graduates
For a long time, the shortage of funeral professionals has been a major bottleneck affecting the service quality and service level of the funeral industry. He Zhenfeng said that from the perspective of the number of funeral education, there are now 8 middle and higher vocational colleges and universities that open funeral majors in the country, and a total of more than <>,<> funeral professionals are trained every year, which cannot meet the needs of the development of the funeral industry and the well-being of the people, which also leads to the relative lag in the construction of China's funeral industry talent team, which restricts the healthy development of the funeral industry.
In the future, there will be undergraduate graduates in the funeral profession. In November 2022, the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Management of the Majors to be Enrolled in Vocational Education in 11, announcing the list of additions to the catalog of vocational education undergraduate majors in 2023, among which the "Modern Funeral Management" major is among them, belonging to the public management and service category, higher vocational undergraduate professional level, students will be awarded a bachelor's degree in management after graduation.
He Zhenfeng believes that this move is a "historic breakthrough and important milestone in modern funeral vocational education", which means that in the nearly 30 years since the establishment of modern funeral education in China, there has finally been a vocational education at the undergraduate level, realizing the cultivation of talents at the "middle and high school level", changing the history of the lack of vocational education at the undergraduate level of the funeral profession in one fell swoop, and completing the key part of the construction of the funeral vocational education system.
According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs' 2021 Statistical Communiqué on the Development of Civil Affairs, by the end of 2021, there were 4373,8 funeral service institutions with 7,1774 employees nationwide. Among them, there are 4,7 funeral homes in the country, with a total of <>,<> employees.
"Funeral institutions have a lot of demand, a big gap, and there is no staff." As a practitioner who has been paying attention to and serving the recruitment of the funeral industry, Yang Haibo believes that especially the enterprises that do funeral services have the largest employment gap.
In 2020, He Zhenfeng once did a special project of "Research on the Construction of Talent Team in the Funeral Industry in the New Era", and through the investigation of 15 funeral service institutions in 30 prefectures and cities in 150 provinces across the country, it was found that there are serious problems in the top-level system design of the construction of the talent team in the funeral industry, unbalanced development of the talent team construction, prominent structural contradictions between the supply side and the demand side, insufficient supply of industry training, low education level and professional relevance of practitioners, and greater labor intensity and work pressure of practitioners.
He suggested that the design of the top-level system should be further strengthened, the reform of funeral institutions should be accelerated, the construction of skilled personnel in the funeral industry should be strengthened, the salary distribution system for skilled talents should be established and the rapid development of funeral education should be promoted.
"The vocational education of the funeral profession at the undergraduate level is an important measure of reform." He Zhenfeng believes that undergraduate education held in accordance with the vocational education talent training model is not a simple increase in the study time at the specialist level, nor is it a copy of the specialist talent training model, nor is it a tinkering with the specialist talent training program.
For funeral undergraduate vocational education, Shen Hongge feels most obviously that the demand for enterprise employment is that in addition to front-line positions, there are a large number of middle-level managers facing deficiencies.
He explained that courses like management majors cannot be taught as a major course in a specialist, but undergraduate education will be more focused.
Funeral is an interdisciplinary discipline that covers philosophy, ethics, management, sociology, religious studies, medicine, economics and other multidisciplinary content.
"At present, undergraduate-level students in funerals will not enroll in large quantities." Shen Hongge said that the cultural connotation and humanistic feelings displayed in modern funeral technology "require higher education and higher level people to do these things." ”
The mental health of funeral practitioners needs urgent attention
The funeral industry is a series of life and death, young people who have just entered the industry are basically from middle vocational and vocational colleges, generally young, when entering a sad, depressed working environment all day, facing all kinds of deaths, belonging to the "psychological trauma high-risk group".
He Zhenfeng's research found that funeral service personnel generally have greater psychological pressure. At the same time, the vast majority of funeral services do not have staff stress reduction measures. For the stress and tension at work, nearly eighty percent of the respondents said that it was mainly self-resolution.
Wei Gardeneng, associate professor of the School of Civil Affairs and Social Governance of Chongqing Urban Management Vocational College, told a reporter from China Youth Daily that a student who had recently joined the work repaired the body of a boy who "dared not even be seen by parents", and his psychology was extremely depressed, and he could only seek comfort from his former teacher.
There is currently a lack of occupational care and mental health for funeral practitioners. Wei Garden said that the school now has a funeral social work major, but there are relatively few psychological counselors who have actually entered the funeral industry to provide mental health services for practitioners.
In recent years, some local funeral institutions have invited professional psychological counselors to intervene. Sanya Funeral Management Service Center invited national second-level psychological counselors to carry out psychological training activities for funeral practitioners for all employees of the center, so as to adjust emotions and relieve pressure for the special group of "life ferrymen".
Psychological counselors guide funeral employees to understand funeral service work from a psychological perspective, and guide employees to "face life with a sunny and upward attitude, face work with a positive and open-minded mood, and do a good job in funeral service with a full mental state".
Hengyang Funeral Home invited clinical psychologists to teach employees skills to relieve stress and ensure mental health, guide funeral staff to build professional self-confidence, actively face worldly pressure, and master the skills to relieve psychological pressure.
He Zhenfeng suggested that palliative care services should be provided for the dying, grief relief services for the bereaved, psychological counseling services for front-line practitioners, and psychological counseling and life education services for the public. Funeral service institutions should establish "psychological stress reduction studios" to carry out a variety of psychological stress reduction activities for funeral workers, and strengthen professional care and mental health counseling training for funeral practitioners.
Shen Hongge believes that enterprises should also change from the aspect of management system, "enterprises should change their thinking, enterprise managers serve employees well, employees serve their families well." ”
The real professional care for practitioners in the funeral industry comes from the society's recognition of the identity and work of practitioners, "When you really do the family's heart, the family still recognizes us as a practitioner." Shen Hongge said that with the enrichment of material life and the improvement of people's spiritual pursuit, the work content and environment of funeral practitioners in the future will also be greatly improved.
Shen Hongge believes that the future funeral industry is more from the personal heart and spirit level to do a larger article, "in the future, funeral homes, cemeteries, may no longer be called funeral homes, cemeteries, are 'life culture park'", practitioners from the disposal of the body to life educators, life caregivers, social value disseminators, to do "life culture undertakings".
China Youth Daily / China Youth Net Reporter Geng Xueqing Intern Tao Siyue Source: China Youth Daily