National Apprenticeship Week launches; Trailblazer legal apprenticeships gather pace
updated on 06 March 2017
Now a decade old, the annual National Apprenticeship Week begins today, 6 March, with a host of events planned around the country.
A launch event was held at Barclays Bank, where the secretary of state for education, Justine Greening MP, addressed an audience of 100 employers and apprentices. Greening highlighted not only the lifetime benefits associated with gaining an apprenticeship, but also how apprenticeships are a gold-standard route into a great career, including in law. As published today in the Law Gazette, the introduction of the Trailblazer solicitor apprenticeship has been a game changer for those wishing to become a solicitor but not go to university.
The introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy occurs on 1 April 2017, encouraging ever more law firms to take on legal apprentices. Bond Dickinson, one of the profession’s earliest adopters of the apprenticeship model, recently described some of the reasons that it launched their scheme: “We took on apprentices because it was the right thing to do; for social mobility, improved staff retention and for the future of our business. But what’s amazed us most is how well the apprentices have performed, they still surprise us every day. Recruiting apprentices as paralegals allows us to attract smart, enthusiastic and engaged people into law – people that never previously would have thought a career in law was for them, or even possible. We’re committed to continuing our apprenticeship scheme and building on it in the years ahead.”
For more on apprenticeships, see our What is a legal apprenticeship? and current apprenticeship vacancies pages.
