Part of the new wave: Clyde & Co legal apprentices share their journeys

The road to becoming a solicitor, is clear – law degree, LPC, training contract, done! If you studied a non-law degree, that's fine too – just throw a one-year GDL into the mix and you can still qualify as a solicitor. And there are more alternatives still; if you don’t want to take the traditional route, there is always the opportunity to qualify as a chartered legal executive through CILEx instead.

So what's all the fuss about? Well, a successful solicitor needs intelligence, persistence, excellent communication skills, rapport and understanding, to name just a few of the necessary skills. But without a 2.1 from a Russell Group university, most large law firms won't even consider you for their vacation schemes, never mind a training contract! Even with amazing grades, trying to secure a training contract can often feel futile, with the application to position ratio sometimes being as high as 25:1. Still want to follow the traditional route?

And the CILEx route is not without its flaws. To qualify as a CILEx fellow, most legal executives work as paralegals while studying to satisfy the three-year vocational minimum. It's no secret that there are a lot of unemployed paralegals at the moment, with the demand for experienced paralegals being much greater than on-the-job training paralegal positions.

However, there may be a solution to all of these problems. Legal apprentices carry out the work of a paralegal, while studying a Level 3 (or Level 4) Advanced Apprenticeship in Legal Services with CILEx. Not only does an apprenticeship give the apprentice vocational experience and a recognised legal qualification, it gives them a much greater understanding of the legal profession than studying alone can offer. In addition, most firms that offer legal apprenticeships pay their apprentices a competitive annual salary of £12,000 (or greater) as well as funding their CILEx qualifications.

Studying for a legal apprenticeship does not mean that you are limiting your options. A legal apprentice may still choose to follow the traditional route, attending university to study a degree. With 18-24 months of legal work experience under your belt, securing a training contract at the end of your degree should prove significantly easier, not to mention acting as a boost to your personal statement. Alternatively, you could stay with CILEx, as you would only need 12-18 months more experience to satisfy the vocational need to cross-qualify as a chartered legal executive.

Research by the National Apprenticeship Service shows that 77% of employers who already have apprentices believe they make them more competitive and 88% believe that they lead to a more motivated and satisfied workforce.

Apprenticeships are definitely beneficial for all and at Clyde & Co we are in our second year of recruiting apprentices. We currently have 10 apprentices in total, with nine legal apprentices and one HR and recruitment apprentice. In their own words, they describe why they chose to take the apprenticeship route to law at Clyde:

• Sky Langweiser: “Throughout the application process I didn’t once feel scared, as all the recruitment team and other employees I met were really helpful and wanted to see us succeed. I was then contacted by one of the firm's partners and told that I had the job – I was so happy! Before we signed our contracts, we were invited to the Manchester office's summer BBQ. It was here that I was able to speak to some of the trainees and remove any fear I had of entering the world of work. Also, I was able to get to know my fellow apprentices, which was the start of some great friendships I have made in just six months.”
• Ellie Johnson: “When we started at the firm, we spent three weeks in 'suit camp', which involved sitting with different people, working within different sections of the business, such as accounts and business development, and travelling to London. This was really important for me, as now I am able to contact people I know within the office and also understand what each department does.”
• Emily Ormrod: “I work in the industrial disease team, which deals with a range of diseases, from stress at work and repetitive strain injury to deafness and asbestos related illnesses. Due to the complexity of the work, I started off by assisting the fee earners in research and drafting. However, I now have my own caseload where I am the file handler. Although this sounds like quite a lot of responsibility considering how junior I am, I never feel alone as my supervisor and the rest of my team are always available for support and to answer any questions I may have.”
• Ben Bennett-Williams: “I work in one of the catastrophic injury teams on what are generally very large loss cases. I help my team by completing tasks for them such as researching case law, phoning other involved parties, and writing notes at court mandated conferences and joint settlement meetings. These tasks have helped me to gain a real understanding of how cases are run. I enjoy completing the research tasks because I have a genuine interest in the law and am fascinated by old case precedents. I also enjoy attending meetings, where legal arguments are brought to life.”
• Josh Armitt: “I can honestly say that I love my job! For the first three weeks I shadowed different departments and got to see first-hand how employees individually make a business run smoothly, something I'd only ever read about in text books. My job is split between two roles: an HR assistant and a graduate recruitment assistant. The graduate recruitment team is in London, so I got to travel there for the first time in my life to meet them and find out what would be required of me. It's a very busy role but I enjoy it and it's been very rewarding when I think about how much I've learnt in such a short space of time!”

Caroline Walsh is head of legal trainee development and recruitment at Clyde & Co.