National Apprenticeships week

Traditional routes to careers are not always the right solution for everyone.  Some may struggle with pure academic studying, others may need to fit learning around additional commitments and some people are eager to learn on the job.  At BPE we have embraced a wide range of methods of studying for many years.  Our support of the CILEX programme for lawyers for instance has led to several of our team qualifying through this route, one of whom is now an Associate with BPE, whilst working within the firm and gaining valuable experience along the way.

For the past few years we have taken on a number of apprentices to support our teams.  Guy Goodhall has been working with the Residential Property team and passed his apprenticeship in 2020.  Supporting the Private Wealth team, Hannah Livingstone has been studying for her apprenticeship for the past 18 months and qualified earlier this year.  The final of our three apprentices, Lewis Adkins, has been working in Commercial Property and will finish his apprenticeship in the next few months.  As apprentices, they work with us for a year and a half on average and have regular weekly check-ins with their training provider as well as monthly sessions with their supervisor at BPE.  On the job support is of course provided constantly throughout their apprenticeship with regular feedback and the opportunity to gain a wide range of experience within the business.

Both Guy and Hannah impressed us so much that, after completing their apprenticeships, they were both offered permanent positions as paralegals with BPE.  Building on the success of these apprenticeships, we are also exploring the options of legal apprenticeships as another alternative to the more traditional routes to qualifying as a lawyer.  With this, as well as the possibility of further apprenticeships within our support teams in the short to medium term, we can see clear benefits to both apprentices and BPE to this form of training and are looking forward to offering more people the opportunity to train with us in this way in the future.

For more information about apprenticeships click here. 

These notes have been prepared for the purpose of articles only. They should not be regarded as a substitute for taking legal advice.