I am currently a 4th year apprentice studying though U LAW and working at Ridley and Hall Solicitors. I chose an apprenticeship when I realised towards the end of my A-Levels that I wasn’t going to meet the grades I needed for the type of course I would want to study at University.
Rather than put myself though the stress and anxiety of not really knowing whether I would have done enough to meet my grades and then needing back up plans etc I decided to look into an apprenticeship.
I settled on a Solicitor apprenticeship. This apprenticeship is 5 ½ years long (dependant on your provider) and it is a degree level apprenticeship meaning by the end of the course you will have an LLB Law degree. During the apprenticeship as you are studying alongside working your employer must allow you to have 1 study day per week where you will not attend the office and you will either attend university or self-study online.
The entry requirements for the solicitors’ apprenticeships vary. Although slightly lower A-Level grades are accepted to join the apprenticeship course some employers may require higher grades. I was lucky enough to get my job based on the grades that I had.
I love that by having my apprenticeship I have the support from my employer and colleagues in both my work and studies. I feel that I have the security of long term employment and I have essentially picked up my training contract from the word go rather than time spent working within a firm working towards the hope of obtaining a training contract. Another huge benefit is of course the fact that once I am qualified I will have 0 debt. The apprenticeship costs me nothing and because I am working, I am also earning a salary. Another benefit that I have seen is that apprentices can be far more prepared to be a qualified solicitor as the apprentice will have had several years employment before qualifying whereas a trainee solicitor may have only had 2 years work experience before qualifying.
It can be tough having to balance full time employment alongside university, but it certainly is doable.
The reward at the end of the apprenticeship is a degree in Law, qualified solicitor status and in most cases offer of employment. Employers will be keen to offer their apprentices employment once they have qualified because the employer has trained, supported and shaped that apprentice across a long period of time, and it would come with great loss for the employer to lose the person they have put a lot of time and energy into.
Overall, I am really happy I chose the apprenticeship route. I can safely say that if you were to be worried you would end up behind your peers who have chosen the university route this would not be the case. I have colleagues who are my age and chose the university route and some of them may be further behind me in terms of their career as once they had completed university it had taken them over a year to obtain a training contact.
If someone was questioning whether to do an apprenticeship I would certainty say JUST DO IT!
Great journey, best wishes 🎊