As I'm sure you will all be aware; training contracts are very difficult to come by. After reading the 'Real World' magazine, I realised this to an even greater extent.

They stated that the next year could prove even tougher for recent law graduates. A recent survey by Contact Law spoke to 83 medium-sized firms, and more than 75% advised that they could not afford to recruit any graduates in the next year.

However the College of Law disagrees; they believe that by 2012 there will be 14% more training contracts than there are students who pass the LPC. They are predicting a 28% decrease in the amount of students passing the LPC, but only a 5.8% decrease in people who apply for training contracts. These figures are based on those published by the Law Society and the SRA, who both report on trends in employment within the legal profession.

If the College of Law’s predictions are right, this could be a positive sign for those considering a law degree. If the research carried out by Contact Law is representative of the whole legal profession, then perhaps training contracts are no longer the best way into the profession? Either way, each year hundreds of students pass the LPC but fail to find a training contract, therefore it is important to explore other avenues.

One such avenue is Work Based Learning, a system piloted by the SRA. It is hoped that the system will open doors into the profession for people from diverse backgrounds. Early results are positive, however the system does not offer a guaranteed way of finding a job, therefore access to the profession can still be an issue.

Watch this space for other suggested ways into the profession...