There are a multitude of celebrant training courses out there and it can be super overwhelming when you’re searching for the best options. Face to face celebrant training, whilst great, has potential complications of geography, travel, cost and timing – and can be very unpredictable whilst we’re still living with Covid restrictions. So it’s understandable that more and more people are now opting to do their celebrant training online, which solves these problems but can also bring up new ones! So you need to do your homework if you are considering this option. To get you started, here are seven things to think about when choosing an online celebrant training course:
Flexibility – and accountability
One of the best reasons to do your celebrant training online is the flexibility it gives you over your learning. You don’t need accommodation, you don’t need to travel and you can fit your training around other work or life commitments. However, some online courses still require you to attend training sessions at set times, which means you will need to check that they fit in with your schedule
For the ultimate in flexibility, you could consider an online course for your celebrant training which you can start at any time and that allows you to choose the pace at which you learn. This would mean that you could set aside a week or so to deep dive into the material if you have a pocket of time, or you can spread it out over much longer if you only have one morning a week, for example.
Of course, with the ultimate in flexibility comes another potential problem – that of never getting around to finishing! So if you want to take your time but you suspect that you might lose momentum, choose an online training course that will help to keep you accountable and motivated.
Connection with other celebrant trainees
The beauty of doing in-person training is that you get to be with like-minded people who all share one goal: to become a celebrant. The group feeling is exciting and motivating and, as people who love people, we celebrants tend to be a sociable bunch!
So it’s no wonder that some people think that an online celebrant training course would lack that connection and feel somewhat lonely. However, this doesn’t have to be the case if you find a course that has plenty of opportunity for you to engage with your fellow celebrant trainees. Of course, meeting via a screen isn’t quite the same as in real life, but it does give the benefit of being able to connect with other celebrants from all over the world and not just the ones who live closest to where the course is happening.
This online group interaction might come through a Facebook group, Zoom tutorials, the possibility of discussion within the course platform itself – or all three of those. So when you are looking around for your perfect celebrant training course online, check out the possibilities for this sort of group connection.
Connection with tutor
Another thing to consider is how much contact you have with your celebrant tutor. It’s not enough to consume the preprepared content on the course but not have very much opportunity to interact with the tutor, ask questions or discuss topics. Make sure that you will have the chance to communicate with the tutor(s) in a way that suits you. This might be in a Facebook group, regular tutorials or being able to contact them in other ways. You really don’t want to feel stuck and frustrated when you have a burning question!
Content to suit your learning style
How do you learn best? Some people like video content, some audio, and some others prefer to read. Find out how the material in the course you are considering is presented and reflect on whether it will suit your learning style. You will probably also benefit from a healthy dose of ‘doing’ too! Even though you are doing your celebrant training online, it isn’t a matter of just taking it all in – there should be tasks and activities that you can engage in. And of course, this goes back to the group interaction too, as consolidating learning is helped by discussing it and sharing the results of the tasks and activities you have been doing.
Assignments and feedback
On top of the learning tasks, a good online celebrant training course should include some assignments that are assessed by the tutors in order for you to pass. Don’t worry – we’re not suggesting you need to write a dissertation! However, you should be challenged to put together all your learning into some written and perhaps recorded longer tasks in order to be ready to take on real-life ceremonies with confidence. And, as these assignments are still part of your learning, you should be able to get constructive feedback from your tutor about what you did well and how you could improve, as well as just a pass or fail.
When you are shopping around for your online celebrant training, do make sure that you are clear about what will be expected from you in terms of any assignments and factor in the time that it will take you to do it into your considerations.
Continuing journey
Training to be a celebrant is very much the beginning of a journey – passing an online course is not a destination in itself but an important step. It’s a horrible feeling to complete your training and then suddenly feel alone and unsure of what to do next or how to get help. So do make sure that any course you choose has a clear path forward that consists of ongoing support and celebrant CPD, and that you feel you know who you can turn to if you need some help or advice.
Access to the material
In training to become a celebrant, online or otherwise, there’s a lot to take in. You can’t be expected to remember every detail! There will inevitably be moments when you want to refer back to your training, even years after you completed it. So it’s worth checking whether you will be able to access the course once you have qualified. Some courses offer ‘lifetime access’, which means that you will be able to access the most up to date version of the course for as long as it is running. This is handy in an ever-evolving role, and it also means that you can benefit from any improvements or additions made to the course, even if they happened after you took it.
If you are considering an online celebrant training course, there’s a lot to think about, but hopefully, these points will help. Mostly (as with so many things) it comes down to your gut decision though: which course resonates with you the most? This is something you can’t necessarily quantify, but it’s worth tuning in to what your ‘little voice’ is telling you, as well as making sure that the course fits around your practical needs.
And if you are looking to do your celebrant training online and you want a course that will tick all of the above boxes, do take a look at the Celebrants Collective – the course creator and tutor is yours truly, so I admit to being biased(!) but it’s a great place to start your celebrant journey.