Fancy yourself a criminal lawyer? You’ll research cases, educate clients on their rights and come up with a strategy to defend them in court. You’ll get to collaborate with the police too, questioning witnesses and collecting evidence. The possibilities are endless! If you’re set on becoming the next Sherlock Holmes and revamping the UK’s justice system, read our guide on law apprenticeships to learn how they work and why you should consider one over the traditional university route. Law apprenticeships allow you to combine hands-on experience with academic study. You’ll split your time between working for an employer and studying towards nationally recognised qualifications at law school.
This will include face-to-face teaching and online learning, as well as periods of independent study as coursework deadlines and exams approach. An Australian Apprenticeship, commonly known as an apprenticeship or traineeship, is a learning pathway that combines paid on-the-job training and formal study with a Registered Training Organisation. It’s a great way to gain a nationally recognised qualification. Earn while you learn! As an apprentice or trainee you will finish your higher-learning journey equipped with practical skills AND a formal education. This powerful combination of theoretical and hands-on experience is prized by employers across many industries and professions.
Did you know the Australian Government may even provide you with funding and other benefits to assist with the costs incurred whilst you are undertaking your training? No matter what your interests or career goals, there’s bound to be a qualification under the Australian Apprenticeship Support Network available to suit you! Apprenticeships and traineeships are offered in more than 500 occupations, ranging from traditional trades, engineering, manufacturing through to media, electronics, tourism, telecommunications, retail and financial services. An apprenticeship helps you learn the skills to succeed as a professional in the legal world. For law-related positions, taking part in an apprenticeship can help you learn more about public policies, court cases, legal proceedings and client defense.
Knowing how to get a law apprenticeship can be helpful if you’re interested in pursuing a role in the field and want to gain the certifications needed to act as a practicing lawyer. In this article, we define what a law apprenticeship is, discover what you do in this type of training and work program, provide a step-by-step guide on how to get this type of apprenticeship and review answers to frequently asked questions about them. First of all, you can check for all legal vacancies – including apprenticeships – here on the AllAboutLaw website. It’s also worth taking a look at our sister site, AllAboutSchoolLeavers.co.uk – as well as law apprenticeship vacancies, they have a wealth of information about applying for apprenticeships in general.
Vacancy adverts will state the length of the apprenticeship, the location, and the salary on offer. Once you’ve found a number of vacancies in your chosen area of law, you can compare and contrast these details to figure out which apprenticeships are best suited to you. There will also be information about what to expect from the firm, what kind of work you’ll be involved with and the qualification you’ll study for while you’re working there. You can apply for a law apprenticeship in various ways – much like with any legal job, the application process will vary from firm to firm. Some may require that you submit a CV and cover letter, while others may have their own application questions you’ll have to answer on an online form.
Most applications will involve sending a CV and cover letter, one or more interviews and an assessment centre. Law firms are keen to be as transparent as possible with their application process, so you will often find this information on the firm’s website. When applying for legal apprenticeships, it’s important to make sure you tailor your application to the specific firm. You should detail your interest in the firm and why you’d be a good fit for their firm culture. Many firms have a news section on their site that highlights recent big cases and transactions, as well as a section explaining their values.
There are 24 different areas of legal practice, including environmental, criminal, employment, and human rights law, to name a few. At this stage, we will look at your academic grades and your answer to an open question. This question is designed to check your understanding of how a law firm, and Weightmans, works. We will also assess structure, depth, punctuation and grammar. The quality of your answer will determine if you progress to the next stage, therefore we suggest you spend some time on this and proofread before submitting it. We will review all written submissions individually, in a blind marking process.
Are you curious? Ambitious? And like being challenged? Want to know the legalities within a business or case? Well… Sit tight. Buckle up. Your law apprenticeship awaits. There are tons of practice areas within law. You could become a family lawyer and help settle financial disputes when couples get divorced. Or venture into entertainment law and protect artists’ intellectual property rights when violated.Our Solicitor and Paralegal Apprenticeships offer a work-based pathway into the profession for ambitious and highly competent learners. For law firms and employers, our innovative programmes help to shape future education and training of early talent, introduce new career routes and diversify talent pools.
The Graduate Entry Solicitor Apprenticeship offers commercial value to your business through the development of legal practice knowledge and skills in your employees. This programme will build on the existing knowledge and skills of both law graduates and those who have completed a law conversion course, to help them gain confidence using the core legal tasks that are expected in practice. In addition, they will also undertake the Solicitors Qualifying Examination assessments which offer a fresh route towards qualification for your aspiring solicitors.
Adapting to the complex and fast-paced pressures of practice can be demanding for solicitors who are at the early stages within the profession. This programme will enhance the confidence and ability of your employees to deliver effective legal services. Your business will benefit from talent that has increasingly higher-level skills in managing complex legal tasks and client requests, from enquiry through to completion. This programme offers a genuine alternative pathway for you to support aspiring legal professionals to qualify as solicitors. Apprenticeships enable you to ‘earn while you learn’, gaining professional legal qualifications while working in paid employment at a law firm or in-house legal team. It’s now possible to qualify as a solicitor through the apprenticeship route, meaning that this is a viable alternative to university and its associated tuition fees.
In April 2017 the government introduced the apprenticeship levy which means that all businesses that make more than £3 million a year must spend a proportion of their profits on training apprentices. Many law firms have launched their own ‘trailblazer’ apprenticeship schemes to open the doors of their businesses and allow aspiring lawyers to join the firm without having gone to university. In addition, the introduction of the SQE from 2021 means that the way future solicitors are trained has become more flexible, meaning that firms have been introducing apprenticeships for school leavers and graduates alike, allowing them to be trained in-house before taking the SQE to qualify as a solicitor.
Since the introduction of degree apprenticeships in 2015, student interest in these programmes has skyrocketed and it’s easy to see why – with students able to work, earn and learn all at the same time. This not only puts them in a strong position when entering the job market but means they are well placed to climb the ladder within an organisation, as is evidenced by the 30% of senior managers at Rolls Royce that started as apprentices. This strength of interest is reflected in new UCAS data, which shows that almost half of students registering with UCAS – about 425,000 – are interested in learning more about apprenticeships. Despite this, only 37,800 people started a degree apprenticeship in 2021-22, with this figure being even lower for those aged 18-24, at only 2,480.
This presents two challenges – increasing the supply of degree apprenticeships and helping learners, especially younger learners, access this pathway. It is key that growing interest and ambition of students is matched with a supply of opportunities. Studying law offers the opportunity to develop a range of skills and explore many aspects of human life. It gives you the chance to sharpen your mind, strengthen your understanding and deepen your experience across the full range of humanities and social sciences. You acquire both breadth of understanding and depth in the areas that interest you most. Law should therefore appeal to those who want to develop both abstract thinking and practical problem-solving.
It’s easy to see why you don’t have to become a lawyer just because you’ve done a law degree; many choose other paths. A law degree can give you the skills to be a successful lawyer but also a successful producer, politician, manager, journalist, diplomat or police officer; a law degree equips you for almost any profession that requires intellectual strength combined with a practical approach to the world. So, why bother doing a (demanding) three-year law degree when you could do a (less intense) degree for three years and then do an (intense) one-year law conversion course or spend (an equally intense) five- to six-month period studying for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), to end up seeking the same jobs as those who did a law degree?
When couched in these terms, the answer may seem a no-brainer: do the less intense course. We disagree. A law degree may come at the price of fewer lie-ins and mid-morning coffees but most law students combine an active social life and extra-curricular activities with the demands of the course. Most importantly, we think they come out much the better for it. Here are just five advantages of reading law at university. On 27 February 2013 the Faculty hosted an important and lively debate on the motion ‘Those who wish to Practise Law should not Study Law at University’. Sir Patrick Elias, Lord Justice of Appeal, who chaired the debate, kept order in a packed auditorium.
Those present included sixth form students considering studying law at University, current students, distinguished legal practitioners, and academics from law and other disciplines. The motion was defeated by a narrow margin. Lord Sumption argued in favour of the motion. His argument focused on the irrelevance of the academic study of Law to the life of the legal practitioner. He asserted that legal practice is primarily concerned with the analysis of facts and assessment of evidence rather than with the identification and interpretaion of the law. He considered that students at University would gain more from studying a subject which enabled them to develop skills of relevance to legal practice, and would benefit from a more rounded education
Enabled them to engage vicariously with the work of great minds, rather than being cloistered from an early age in the study and practise of law. With such compelling benefits, it comes to reason that obtaining a law degree is not easy. The standards are high and outstanding academic performance is expected. Studying law is demanding and a truly intellectual challenge. If you enjoy working your little grey cells, this may well be the biggest benefit of studying law. Do you have what it takes to study law? John Mortimer once said that no brilliance is required in law, just common sense and relatively clean fingernails.
Good written and verbal communication is very important to the study of law. A significant part of your degree will be assessed by way of written examinations and coursework. A willingness to participate in group discussions and presentations is also important. Whether you are communicating verbally or in writing you need to be able to present arguments and ideas in a clear, logical and persuasive way. Studying law requires dedication. Whilst your tutors will provide you with help and guidance you must be able to motivate yourself to study, take the initiative when required and learn to plan your time and meet deadlines.
Whilst you need the ability to work independently you also need to be a team player. One of the great things about university is that you get to meet a wide range of people from all different backgrounds. Your studies will sometimes require you to work in small or large groups with your fellow students. You need to be able to constructively contribute to such group work to achieve the goals set.Contrary to what your friends and family might believe the minute you start law school, nobody knows everything about the law. Whilst you are not expected to know everything, you are expected to know how to find the information you need. Legal research is therefore key. Resources are increasingly electronic so good computer skills are a real bonus. Don’t worry though, from induction onwards you will be provided with plenty of guidance and training about how to conduct effective legal research.
