BPP to run Legal Trailblazer apprenticeship training programmes

BPP University Law School is to develop ‘Legal Trailblazer’ apprenticeship training programmes to be offered from September 2016.

The announcement of the programmes – to be run in conjunction with a number of firms including Eversheds – comes a week after the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills confirmed as “ready for delivery” the Apprenticeship Standards to qualify as solicitors, paralegals, or chartered legal executives.

These standards were developed by groups of ‘trailblazer’ employers and businesses.

The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority were due to approve the necessary changes to solicitors' training regulations last week (9 September).

Peter Crisp, Dean of BPP University Law School, said: “I am really excited to be working closely with a range of firms using BPP University Law School’s extensive experience in legal education to develop apprenticeship programmes to meet the needs of the profession.

“Creating these alternative funded routes to qualification will make an important contribution to increasing diversity and access to the profession.”

A spokeswoman for BPP said: “The trailblazers will give opportunity to employers who employ solicitors, legal executives and paralegals a chance to train their future workforce through an apprenticeship route. The routes will apply as much to local authorities and in-house teams as they do to law firms.”