BSB announces barrister apprenticeship standard
updated on 09 December 2024
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The Bar Standards Board (BSB) and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IFATE) have revealed the barrister apprenticeship standard, which sets out the skills, knowledge and behaviours required to become a successful practising barrister in England and Wales.
The standard provides the framework for an apprenticeship route to qualification and will sit alongside the three other routes to qualifying as a barrister, which are:
- the three-step route (ie, complete a degree, Bar course and pupillage);
- the four-step route (ie, as above but the Bar course is split into two parts); and
- the combination of the academic (ie, degree) and vocational components (ie, Bar course) to enable aspiring barristers to complete them at the same time before moving onto the work-based component, pupillage.
As with the other routes to the Bar, the BSB will set and oversee the requirements that barrister apprentices and training providers must meet to ensure consistency of standards across all four pathways.
The director of Regulatory Standards at the BSB, Rupika Madhura, described the barrister apprenticeship standard as the “result of many months of hard work”.
“It is very important in the public interest that no matter what route an individual takes to qualification as a barrister, the outcome is the same – a barrister who has received high-quality training to become competent in all the areas set out in the Professional Statement to at least the threshold standard,” Madhura added.
Chair of the Barrister Apprenticeship Trailblazer Group, Tim Coulson, said the new route “has the potential to widen access and participation in the profession particularly by those from less advantaged backgrounds”.
Elsewhere, the news has been welcomed by many, including Ben Bentley, a barrister and partner at Browne Jacobson LLP – a firm recognised for its commitment to social mobility and one of the first nationally to offer solicitor apprenticeships. Bentley said the barrister apprenticeship offering is “an invaluable resource” that’ll “train the next generation of advocates who will speak up about society’s biggest issues and faithfully represent clients in court”.
