Burges Salmon has launched a solicitor apprenticeship scheme.
The Bristol-headquartered firm has taken on five legal apprentices, who will will spend one day a week studying at BPP and four days a week working at Burges Salmon.
There are three different Trailblazer routes for law, leading to qualification either as a paralegal, legal executive or solicitor. Details of how they will be assessed were revealed by the government last September.
Burges Salmon’s apprentices will first complete the Level 3 Paralegal Apprenticeship over a two-year period, gaining a Certificate in Legal Practice in the process, which is equivalent to the first year of university.
Completing the Certificate in Legal Practice will enable the apprentices to then complete the Level 7 Solicitor Apprenticeship in a shorter period of time.
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.”
The other large firms to have launched a full Level 7 solicitor apprenticeship so far are Eversheds, which launched its scheme in the spring, and Kennedys, which announced its own earlier this month.
