NLS work-based-learning pilot delivers "heroes"

A long-running pilot scheme trialling a new way for students to qualify as solicitors has come to a close at Nottingham Law School (NLS). The four-and-a-half-year scheme, carried out on behalf of the SRA, saw students having to demonstrate that they had the key skills and competencies required to make it as solicitors.

During the pilot the 47 NLS students worked as paralegals in law firms or in-house (eg, in local government, banks, insurance companies and charities). All had completed the LPC either before or during the pilot. They worked in a range of areas, both transactional and contentious, and each had to compile a detailed portfolio demonstrating their work and showing that they had achieved 37 prescribed outcomes, in areas that included legal knowledge and skills, communication, client relations, business awareness, self-awareness and professional conduct. They may now all apply to the SRA to become solicitors.

Another section of the pilot (not run by NLS) involved trainees, who also worked towards achieving the prescribed outcomes as above.

Project coordinator Professor Jane Ching said: "Don't think this was an easy option. The fact we have proved that almost 50 people who were working outside the mainstream can show they can perform to the required standard is a huge tribute to their determination and stamina, the support and engagement of their employers and the hours of hard work put in by academic and administrative staff at the law school. They are all heroes."

Dean of Nottingham Law School, Professor Andrea Nollent, said that the project has "changed the way in which people think about what young lawyers learn in the workplace and how their achievements can be recognised".

Further development of the pilot scheme will depend on the outcome of the ongoing Legal Education and Training Review.