I just Googled ‘stigma around apprenticeships’ and had to stop reading because it hurt both my head and my heart.

In my career, I have employed many apprentices from tradespersons to finance to business admin and I am really proud of all that they have achieved post apprenticeship. I think an apprenticeship is a tremendous opportunity to gain practical skills and be paid whilst learning.

I’m certainly not arguing against going to University, that’s also, equally, a fantastic route to a career, but I think the two routes should be treated as sperate options. There is a whole host of reasons why university isn’t for everyone, from socioeconomic barriers to people simply not being academic. It’s not mutually exclusive, many graduates go onto apprenticeships after Uni because of the practical hands-on experience an apprenticeship provides and vice versa, many apprentices go on to do degrees.

Being an apprentice at Jacksons

The majority of our apprentices complete a Business Administration Level 3 Apprenticeship. This may sound very generic, but each of them are working in a specific legal department, focusing on one area of law, ranging from writing a Will to selling a house. The apprentices are all given responsibilities and meaningful work, they are part of our business and are valued and rewarded in the same way.

Duties for an apprentice at Jacksons are varied, they include meeting clients, checking ID, taking initial enquiries from new clients, opening files, sending out quotes, using the practice management system to create communications for customers, learning about the law in their department as well as joining in with companywide initiatives from charity activities to the Apprentice Club.

We have recently appointed two new apprentices in our Newcastle Residential Conveyancing team and we are looking for another two for our Stockton office, one each in our Private Client and Conveyancing teams.

How apprentices learn

For our Level 3 Apprentices, learning takes the form of a mixture of on-the-job learning, plus monthly one to one meetings with a tutor who guide the apprentice through an online workbook, creating a portfolio of work. It takes around 18 months to finish the portfolio of work, during which time the apprentice spends around 20% of their working week on apprenticeship work.

Read the full article to find out more about law apprenticeships at Jacksons Law.