Co-op Funeralcare welcomes 1,500th (and oldest) apprentice

Co-operative Funeralcare is celebrating the recruitment of its 1,500th apprentice – 67-year-old detective sergeant Robert Brown. The Co-operative Group’s funeral division aimed to recruit an apprentice per day in...

Co-operative Funeralcare is celebrating the recruitment of its 1,500th apprentice – 67-year-old detective sergeant Robert Brown.

The Co-operative Group’s funeral division aimed to recruit an apprentice per day in 2015 and has exceeded its target with an intake of 40 to 50 new apprentices each month. Since the apprenticeship programme launched in 2013, around 500 have joined Co-op Funeralcare – the largest funeral director in the UK – each year.

Its latest recruit is also its oldest. Mr Brown, from Canterbury in Kent, is taking up the role after a 30-year career in the police force.

“I can honestly say there is no other job I’d rather be doing,” Mr Brown said. “After a 30-year stint with the police, I did wonder how I would find working in funerals, but I love it. I only wish I’d done it sooner. My wife also recently started working at the Margate funeral home and hopes to become an apprentice in the coming months.”

Co-op Funeralcare reduces costs by 7%

The apprenticeship scheme has drawn people aged 18-67 – some of them undergoing a career change, others taking their first steps into the world of work.

A branch of Co-op Funeralcare [photo: the Co-op Group]
A branch of Co-op Funeralcare [photo: the Co-op Group]
Katie Tulett from Southampton is currently Co-op Funeralcare’s youngest apprentice, aged 21.

Commenting on her new role, Miss Tulet said: “I have somewhat of an emotional attachment to Co-op Funeralcare. My grandad, my mum and my nan’s funerals were arranged with Co-op and whilst I didn’t have much to do with the arrangements, I will never forget their send offs. It was from the support my brother and I received during these times that I realised I had to work in funerals.”

The scheme, in partnership with learndirect, makes Co-op Funeralcare the only UK funeral director to offer an apprenticeship in funeral operations and services.

In this article

Join the Conversation