Burges Salmon has hired five legal apprentices, making it one of the first law firms in the UK to do so under the new Trailblazer standards.
Burges Salmon has been involved in the Trailblazers initiative since March 2014 and is part of the steering group for legal services.
Trailblazers is a cross-party initiative developed to improve the quality and simplicity of apprenticeship standards and align them more with the needs of employers. At present more than 1,300 employers are involved, between them developing over 150 new apprenticeship standards.
The legal sector group has designed three new apprenticeship standards: Level 3 Paralegal, Level 6, Chartered Legal Executive and Level 7 Solicitor. Burges Salmon was involved in the development of all of the legal apprenticeships and was part of the sub-group that helped to draft the Level 7 Solicitor apprenticeship. This is currently one of only two Level 7 approved trailblazer standards being delivered.
The two year programme includes a combination of through-the-job and textbook learning, with the apprentices spending one day a week studying at the BPP law school and four days a week working at Burges Salmon. By the end of the programme the apprentices will achieve a Level 3 Paralegal Apprenticeship Standard and a Certificate in Legal Practice (equivalent to the first year of university). Completing the Certificate in Legal practice will enable the apprentices to complete the Level 7 Solicitor Apprenticeship in a shorter period of time and it is hoped that this will be an option going forward.
Burges Salmon Chief People Officer Robert Halton said: "We fully support the principles behind the Trailblazers initiative and recognise the value that apprentices can bring to any business. We want to develop skills for the future of our business and the legal sector. Other professional services have been offering high quality apprenticeships for years with great success and we see this as an exciting development for the legal sector."
For more information see our Apprenticeships pages.