Would-be lawyers’ chances of breaking into the legal profession have suffered a severe blow as the number of training contracts registered last year plummets by 16 per cent, according to a new survey.
The Law Society’s latest annual statistical report revealed that despite 14,510 Legal Practice Course (LPC) places being available to law students across two modes of study in 2009-10, only 4,874 training contracts were registered between 1 August 2009 to 31 July 2010.
This is expected to be exacerbated with number of LPC places set to rise by 5 per cent to 15,166 during the current academic year (2011-11), with 12,142 full-time and 3,024 part-time places.
However, the number of students enrolling on the LPC fell substantially between 2009 and 2010, falling by 24.3%. Total enrolments in 2009 were 9,337, compared to 7,064 for 2010, with a 2010 pass rate of 87 per cent.
College of Law and BPP Law School control 63 per cent of the LPC market, offering 4,750 and 2,115 full time places in 2010-11 respectively.
Elsewhere, the report revealed a small increase in the number of female trainee solicitors registered between 2009-10 and 2010-11, rising from 61.7 per cent to 62.7 per cent. There was also jump in the number of trainees with known ethnicity drawn from BME groups, from 19.9 per cent to 20.3 per cent in the same period.
The legal profession should operates like the medics: Make the in-take really difficult, and then operates the system of “If you got a degree, you got a job.” So students (10,000 of them last year) would not be in debt of a minimum of £50,000 when they finish their LPC without a training contract.
The fact of the matter is that law schools are operating as a business today. They are marketing law degree as if everyone will be a lawyer at the end of the day. This is simply unfair, wrong and not the aim of legal education.
Statistics statistics statistics…these are just numbers, not accounting for everybody such as ILEX graduates, oversea student lawyers, legal office assistants – all wanting a training contract.
In reality, there are far more people out there who have worked hard to get that law degree or other qualification, and have gained that work experience, and then get shot down when they start applying for training contracts. It may not be like this for everyone, such as the people who have already secured a contract, but I’m currently on the LPC and in my entire tutor class (20 students) not one has got a TC, and are finding it difficult to find a parelegal job.
Yes, there is an oversupply graduates, but also a supply of ambitious LPC students who enrol at the College of Law or BPP not fully aware of the competition and reality of getting a firm to invest thousands of pounds in you through a training contract. The CoL brouchure I got, you could say, hypnotised me thinking that I could gain a training contract within a month on the course through the very helpful careers department and pro-bono service, alas, it has failed.
But as much as a critic I have been, the only shortfall really is yourself. If you haven’t got a training contract, don’t pity away, it does take time and you must develop yourelf, gain MORE experience, be enthusiastic and proactive in getting where you want to be. The LPC is just another step in leading to your legal career – it’s not the top of the ladder just yet, there’s still a long way to go. Every market in this current era is a challenge and is struggling, take for example my sister, graduated in 2009 from Salford University in interior design, and (as far as non-bias goes) she has a great eye for interior decorations and layout. She got a great job up north working for an interior company, and less than a year later, BOOM, she got made redundant. Now she has to start climbing the ladder again.
You’re not alone if you haven’t secured a training contract and you’re on the LPC. It’s a law student’s worst nightmate, but if you don’t give up, then eventually you’ll get there regardless of these competitive statistics.
Statistics statistics statistics…these are just numbers, not accounting for everybody such as ILEX graduates, oversea student lawyers, legal office assistants – all wanting a training contract.
In reality, there are far more people out there who have worked hard to get that law degree or other qualification, and have gained that work experience, and then get shot down when they start applying for training contracts. It may not be like this for everyone, such as the people who have already secured a contract, but I’m currently on the LPC and in my entire tutor class (20 students) not one has got a TC, and are finding it difficult to find a parelegal job.
Yes, there is an oversupply graduates, but also a supply of ambitious LPC students who enrol at the College of Law or BPP not fully aware of the competition and reality of getting a firm to invest thousands of pounds in you through a training contract. The CoL brouchure I got, you could say, hypnotised me thinking that I could gain a training contract within a month on the course through the very helpful careers department and pro-bono service, alas, it has failed.
But as much as a critic I have been, the only shortfall really is yourself. If you haven’t got a training contract, don’t pity away, it does take time and you must develop yourelf, gain MORE experience, be enthusiastic and proactive in getting where you want to be. The LPC is just another step in leading to your legal career – it’s not the top of the ladder just yet, there’s still a long way to go. Every market in this current era is a challenge and is struggling, take for example my sister, graduated in 2009 from Salford University in interior design, and (as far as non-bias goes) she has a great eye for interior decorations and layout. She got a great job up north working for an interior company, and less than a year later, BOOM, she got made redundant. Now she has to start climbing the ladder again.
You’re not alone if you haven’t secured a training contract and you’re on the LPC. It’s a law student’s worst nightmate, but if you don’t give up, then eventually you’ll get there regardless of these competitive statistics.