Here's our suggested timetable for recruitment to the Bar. By all means draw up a timetable of your own, but if you do, make sure you're clued up about closing dates for the Bar vocational course (BVC) and pupillage applications.

As a rule of thumb, you should apply a year before you wish to start the BVC (apply from October the year before). You should apply through the online pupillage application system (OLPAS) between one and one-and-a-half years before you want to start (in March for starting pupillage in September the following year).

First-Year Law Degree Students and Second-Year Non-Law Degree Students

Christmas vacation and spring term
The key to this year is thinking ahead. Do your homework on the Bar and the legal profession, get involved in activities that will look good on your CV and join an Inn of Court (if a law undergraduate). Note that you must join an Inn before commencing the BVC. Once you've successfully completed the BVC you'll be called to the Bar by your Inn. You'll also have to undertake 12 qualifying sessions (previously known as 'dining') before being called to the Bar.

Research and apply for work placement schemes in chambers (known as 'mini-pupillages') for your summer holiday. Try to arrange a few stints in different chambers to give you an overview of the various work areas, unless you're unusually keen to specialise in one particular work area. Remember that without work experience any application for pupillage is unlikely to be taken seriously. Work experience will not only give you a stronger CV, but also help you decide whether law really is the career for you.

Second-Year Law Degree Students and Final-Year Non-Law Students

Autumn term
Attend relevant careers events (including careers centre presentations and talks).

Look into funding possibilities for postgraduate training (eg, local education authority grants and scholarships given by Inns). Check closing dates.

Christmas vacation and spring term
Keep applying for mini-pupillages.

Attend careers fairs (including pupillage fairs).

Non-law degree students will need to apply for the conversion course, usually known as the graduate diploma in law (GDL). The closing date is February.

Summer vacation
Most barristers' chambers start accepting pupillage applications during this period. Gain some further work experience.

Look at the different BVC providers and investigate the application procedure.

Final-Year Law Degree Students and GDL Conversion Course Students

Autumn term
Hot on the heels of your mini-pupillages, make applications for year-long pupillages.

Finalise your funding options and be clear about closing dates for funding applications. The Inns and some chambers have various awards available. Contact them directly for more information.

The closing date for BVC applications is usually during this term, between September and November. Late applications can be made until February, but with no guarantee of success. You can check the dates at www.bvconline.co.uk.

Spring term
Attend pupillage fairs.

Apply for pupillage through OLPAS (summer season applications) in March/April.

Summer term
Check the progress of summer season OLPAS applications throughout May, June and July.

Obtain a certificate for completion of the academic stage of legal training.

BVC Year

In September and October, apply for pupillage through OLPAS (autumn season applications) if you were unsuccessful in the summer season.

Pupillage

'Pupillage' is one year spent in an authorised pupillage training organization (either barristers' chambers or another approved legal environment), usually split into two six-month periods referred to as 'sixes'.

First six
Without practising, you will observe and assist your pupil supervisor and other barristers in chambers. The intention is that the pupil shares their supervisor’s daily professional life.

Second six
During these six months you’ll be a practising barrister. You may have cases and your own clients whom you’ll represent in court. Now you start to build up your reputation as a barrister.

Continuing Professional Development

Barristers must complete a set programme of compulsory ongoing training. Continuing professional development (CPD) covers advocacy, case preparation and procedure, professional conduct and ethics, and accounting. In your first three years of practice, you’ll fall under the new practitioners’ programme in which you’ll have to fulfil 45 hours of CPD. Then, in the established practitioners’ programme, you’ll have to do 12 hours per year. CPD activities include attending courses directly relevant to practice, teaching law on undergraduate courses, and writing law books or publications.