National Apprenticeship Week: Addleshaw Goddard’s new Solicitor Apprenticeship scheme blazes a trail

As this is the 10th National Apprenticeship Week (NAW), it's timely to reflect upon the work that both I and my firm, Addleshaw Goddard (AG), have been pioneering in this arena. For the past three years, the Trailblazers Apprenticeship in Law has been a passion of mine. I was first asked to get involved in this amazing initiative in March 2014. At the time, I thought I was volunteering for the initial phase, not expecting to still be a part of this wonderful project three years later!

To give you some background, Trailblazers is a major programme of reform to develop employer-led standards, putting employers in the driving seat to design apprentice routes that suit their needs. My role has been to chair the development of these new standards for the legal sector, which complements my day job as head of resourcing at AG, looking after graduates and apprentices.

A number of law firms, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, CILEx Regulation, the Law Society and in-house teams have been involved with the creation of the standards that have led to three new legal apprenticeship routes to qualification as a paralegal (Level 3), chartered legal executive (Level 6) and solicitor (Level 7). The standards were launched last September and employers have started to recruit students.

There’s never been a better time to start a legal apprenticeship. For employers, the Trailblazer Scheme offers an alternative to the traditional route into law, opening the doors to a more diverse talent stream. For students, this is a great time to apply, providing career alternatives for those that don't want to go to university.

We launched our first apprenticeship scheme in to our Transaction Services Team (TST) in 2013, and to date have recruited 22 legal apprentices. We’ve also won awards for our scheme, including Top 100 Apprenticeship Employer and Apprentice of the Year at the CILEx awards. They have made a huge contribution to the Firm and we are proud to announce we are expanding our scheme and will be recruiting six Solicitor Apprentices in to the TST across our Leeds and Manchester offices to start in September 2017.

Launched in 2010, the TST is a pioneering response to market pressure for more efficient and imaginative ways of resourcing client assignments. The team is made up of over 130 people, including paralegals, associates and managers who provide a wide range of routine legal services, in either a stand-alone or integrated way alongside AG's lawyers and I as part of clients' internal teams. The team are increasingly focused on developing and using existing and new technologies such as artificial intelligence to deliver their work.

Our current apprentices have a fulfilling career ahead of them and will be promoted to Paralegal at the end of their apprenticeship. West Middleton, who is nearing the end of his CILEx Level 3 Diploma in Providing Legal Services and works in the TST, said: “There’s no doubt that my experience as an apprentice has helped to mould me as a person. I would never have developed the same level of maturity and professionalism had I taken a different path and missed out on such early exposure to such a professional environment.”

AG is hosting a Law Society event on 16 March in Manchester for employers wanting to find out more information on how to set up a scheme, updates on the levy and to hear from apprentices. Book a place to attend here.

Please follow the live updates on Trailblazers during NAW, which started on 6 March, on #NAW2017. Also follow us on @AG_TST, as we will be highlighting the successes of our own legal apprentices throughout the week and launching our recruitment process for our Solicitor Apprentice scheme.

Gun Judge is head of resourcing at Addleshaw Goddard.