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Kaplan gets tough on students with first LPC admissions test

This is a stunt. Why should a training provider take fewer people than it has places? These are rapacious businesses chasing a shrinking number of would-be students. The number of students is shrinking because, at last, the realities of getting qualified are begining to permeate universities. Students need to engage with the profession they seek to join. I spend hours trawling through magazines before shelling out on a new car (price of last purchase 10 years ago was about what students spend on an LPC). I ask friends for recommendations, I test drive vehicles, read What Car? reviews, etc etc. It takes several days out of my life - fortunately only once a decade! Is it too much to expect that those thinking about joining the profession do something similar? This is a contracting profession. the market is being thrown open by the LS Act 2007. ABS's will reduce the need for qualified lawyers. Legal Aid is contracting. Major recruiters are off shoring the tedious work trainees once did and they are also recruiting young lawyers overseas where they can find better graduates who eventually return to their jurisdiction of origin and help the UK firm to build relationships. The Bar can provide only 1 pupillage for every 4 BVC/BPTC graduate. The Law Society does rather better but the demand for trainees fell off a cliff in the very year that the LPC providers produced their highest numbers of graduates. That means that the market is currently heavily over supplied. Once the SRA gets a grip on the lamentable state of the Training Contract the number of firms taking trainees is likely to fall further even when the domestic economy recovers. Take your time, make the best choice of career you can but be under no illusion - the heady days when 90% of LPC grads got Training Contracts is over. Aptitude tests are a waste of time and money if you want to become a solicitor. the great thing about the profession is its diversity - anyone of virtually any aptitude can find a place within it. being a solicitor is about ability, not aptitude. If you are bright enough to get a law degree or the GDL you should be bright enough to become a solicitor. The wastage in the profession is colossal, especially for women. Too many people have a very distorted picture of the profession - get some experience in the work place and if it would make you cry not to become a solicitor, have a go. If you are looking at the profession as a staging post while you come up with a better plan, be warned - its expensive and risky and some of it is neither interesting nor pleasant.

14-Oct-2010

4:29 pm