Get ahead of the game with legal apprenticeships

As business director of ILEX Tutorial College (ITC), I work with a lot of employers in relation to the vocational qualifications on offer by the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx). The hot topic in our client meetings in late 2012 was the role of apprentices in a professional services business. I've had the discussion with quite a range of employers, including partners, business owners, learning and development managers, HR advisers, professional support lawyers, ops managers and finance directors.

The reason it's so topical is that it is one way in which businesses can address staffing structures when profitability is so crucial. With the prevalence of fixed-fee work and clients putting greater pressure on their lawyers to reduce costs, there is an ever greater need for lawyers to delegate work effectively. Commoditisation of work and imminent mergers are also catalysts for firms to review how they're working and to check that work is being done at the right level, by the right people.

Some clients are looking to train their existing paralegal population and already have excellent career structures in place, taking their paralegals through to qualification as a chartered legal executive or solicitor. Others are dipping their toes in the water by recruiting a new group of young people, through the City and Guilds/CILEx Level 2 Legal Administration route. This is ideal for the type of entry-level process work, which needs to be done in all legal organisations - even those with the most sophisticated technology. The incentive for employers is that training under this apprenticeship is fully funded if the learner is younger than 19 when they start or funded at 50% if the learner is aged 19-24. There is a one-hour exam on the legal environment and support offered on, for example, how to administer legal case files and work in the business environment. It's just what someone leaving school would need to help them become acclimatised to working in the world of the (legal) office.

However, this year vocational routes into law will become even more exciting. The Higher Apprenticeship in Legal Services launches in Spring 2013. This is a Level 4 qualification and is equivalent to the first year of a degree in terms of difficulty. The areas to choose from are personal injury, insolvency and debt recovery, and commercial litigation.

CILEx, through ITC, is part of the consortium developing this Higher Apprenticeship, along with Pearson in Practice, Damar Training and Skills for Justice. We want this apprenticeship to work for businesses as well as students, so have organised events across the United Kingdom and asked various employers to take part in consultations so we can gain valuable feedback on:

• the size of the qualification;
• how long businesses would want apprentices to study for;
• whether personal injury apprentices should be studying RTA, slipping and tripping, and employers liability or just one of these areas;
• whether client care and legal research should be tested by a standard formal assessment for everyone (as part of the technical certificate) AND a review in the workplace; and
• whether apprentices should become student members of CILEx, thereby coming within the regulatory structure of ILEX Professional Standards.

It seems that 2013 will be an interesting time in legal education. While more traditional routes look to evolve via projects like the LETR, new vocational routes are opening up routes into law like never before. Watch this space and do let us know your views; it's your chance to shape how these apprenticeships will work.

Jenny Pelling is business director at ILEX Tutorial College. For more on a CILEx career, click here.