Hard to access legal career opportunities? Let the Social Mobility Foundation help

The recent protests regarding the proposed changes to legal aid and the impact some expect them to have on the profession are another reminder of how careers in the legal profession may seem all too distant for young people from low-income backgrounds to pursue. All young people, regardless of their background, face the barriers of the current economic climate and the intense competition of applying to top universities to enter their chosen profession, while young people from less privileged backgrounds face many more barriers even than this. That is why the Social Mobility Foundation exists; we aim to address the barriers facing young people from such backgrounds to help them enter the top universities and professions.

Students we work with rarely have professionals or university graduates within their families and often attend schools that do not have the necessary expertise or knowledge of what employers are looking for. As a result, the majority of students lack the advice and guidance that more privileged young people can access. To address this, we provide students with a mentor from their chosen profession, skills development workshops and career insight events to enable them to ask questions about their chosen profession and university choices, and gain knowledge of what is required in a professional environment.

We also provide Year 12 students with short, work-taster internships with prestigious employers to give them a real insight into their chosen profession, plus intensive support with their university applications, including tailored visits to universities and workshops on personal statements, interviews and aptitude tests such as the LNAT. This form of support aims to tackle barriers such as the increasing importance of undertaking unpaid internships and the need to attend particular universities to have the best chance to gain entry to certain professions. Students from more privileged backgrounds may have friends or relatives who can help them to obtain such opportunities or families who can afford to provide financial support throughout university and the necessary unpaid internships that follow.

So does our programme work?  In the last seven years, 53% of the university destinations of our students have been to Russell Group universities and we are now seeing our earliest students begin employment with top City firms such as Baker & McKenzie, Clifford Chance and Taylor Wessing.

Young people across the country who are interested in a legal career should apply to get on this year’s Social Mobility Foundation programmes by 27 January 2014. To find out more, please visit www.socialmobility.org.uk.

Rubeca Hussain is the aspiring professionals coordinator at the Social Mobility Foundation.