YLAL response to LETR

This week YLAL has submitted a response to the Equality, Diversity and Social Mobility paper which forms a part of the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR).

The LETR is a review of legal education being jointly conducted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and the Institute of Legal Executives Professional Standards (IPS). The remit of the LETR is a broad one; it encompasses the qualifying law degree, the BPTC/LPC, pupillage, training contracts and continuing professional development. It provides an opportunity for groups to identify those aspects of legal training which work and those which do not. The outcome of the LETR will form the basis of a set of recommendations to the professional bodies.

The Equality, Diversity and Social Mobility paper is one aspect of the LETR. It deals specifically with how effective the current system is at promoting social mobility and how it can be improved.

Our response is based on the findings of our recent social mobility survey. It raises, among other issues:

• the prohibitive cost of the LPC and the BPTC;
• the mismatch between the number of training contracts and pupillages and the numbers who are recruited to take the LPC and BPTC;
• the difficulties with unpaid work experience;
• the value of “work-based learning” as an alternative route to qualification;
• the need for more and better targetted scholaships.

Download our full response below. We will be providing a more general response to the review addressing broader issues in due course.

With thanks to YLAL members from the LETR sub-group who helped to prepare our response, co-ordinated by Heather Thomas and Rachel Francis.

** Update October 2012 – our subsequent response to the later LETR discussion paper 02/2012 can be accessed here **