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News
Drop in available training contracts as law student numbers increase
updated on 30 May 2013
The total number of training contracts on offer has decreased by 10.5% in the last year.
The Law Society's annual statistics report reveals that 4,869 training contracts were registered in 2011-12, as compared to 5,441 in the previous year. Meanwhile, The Lawyer reports that the current number of training contracts is 16% lower than it was before the onset of the global economic downturn in 2007-08.
Despite the decreasing number of training contracts being made available and large rises in tuition fees, the number of students who have secured university places to study law actually increased in 2012 - up 5.5% from the 2011 figures. All of this indicates that the competition for training contracts will get even worse, while GDL and LPC providers will continue to draw criticism from those who believe that they should not be as happy to take the money of candidates (eg, those with 2.2s) who have little chance of securing a training contract.
