law degree or law apprenticeship?????

Hi,

I was in the same boat as you a couple of years ago. Do i go to university or do i go through an Apprenticeship? It all depends on what career path you are going into, Being Law most people go through the university stage - but as you say, they struggle to find jobs in their chosen degree (so they end up doing something completely different). I am not sure how common Apprenticeships in Law are, but if you found the perfect Apprenticeship Opportunity I wouldn't hesitate to take it as you will be studying towards your chosen subject and you will also be working with an employer earning a wage and getting valuable experience (which degree students lack).

Apprenticeships at Level 3 are equivalent to 2-3 A-Levels & Level 4 Apprenticeships are equivalent to the first year of your Degree, so even if you want to further your study later on, you can go into university to study towards your Degree.

More information can be found on the Apprenticeships Website: www.apprenticeships.org.uk

I hope this helped?

Many Thanks,

Mark

Would you be missing out on the uni social experience? Absolutely, without a shadow, and to be honest I wouldn't trade that for the apparenticeship route, as I said at my TC interview when they asked whether I'd have done the apprenticeship if possible at the time I went to uni. However, you do get 10k a year or something and don't have to go through the TC process.

The upsides are clearly the money and security, the downsides are (in my opinion) that it's less structured than a TC and you have to plump for a certain kind of law firm and career at an early age, once you're in law that's basically it, the exit opportunities are limited whereas grads have their degree to fall back on. The other issue might be moving firms from where you trained as you may end up specialist early without a broader legal knowldge, but I imagine your legal knowledge will be at least equivalent to GDL so if you network well should be alright.

In conclusion I wouldn't do it myself, but I can see the appeal.

In the long term would it not be better to have the work experience from the apprenticeship and the money and then go off to uni? Also what is a tv

Not really, I'd say either go uni and try become a solicitor or go the apprenticechip route and become a legal exec. Once you're a legal exec you have all the same powers/rights so it'd be a waste of time to spend 6 years doing a degree, LPC and then a TC, all of which is either spending money or lower paid than you would be as a legal exec.

How would being a solicitor be lower pay than a legal executive?

It wouldn't, but if you did the apprenticeship and qualified as a legal exec then went back to uni in order to start the solicitor route you would be missing out on the salary you could be earning as a legal exec, and paying for the privilege to boot. You would close that gap up a bit as a trainee and then completely as a qualified solicitor, but it seems a very long winded and expensive way of getting back to where you started out anyway.

So what route did you end up picking? And do you regret the choice you made?
Coz I'm currently in the same position as you tbh :/ I have no idea what to do. I have AAAB grades at AS, but I still feel like the apprenticeship route is better for law ...coz apparently only a small percentage of law grads actually become solicitors :/
What should I do? What did you end up doing?

So what route did you end up picking? And do you regret the choice you made?
Coz I'm currently in the same position as you tbh :/ I have no idea what to do. I have AAAB grades at AS, but I still feel like the apprenticeship route is better for law ...coz apparently only a small percentage of law grads actually become solicitors :/
What should I do? What did you end up doing?