Law Society urges UK government to scrap plans to axe funding for solicitor apprenticeships

The City of London Law Society’s City Century scheme, which was launched in 2023 and co-ordinates apprenticeships offered by more than 50 firms, says this training is almost exclusively taken up by school leavers.

Joanna Hughes, co-chief executive of City Century, said while City firms would continue supporting apprenticeships if funding was withdrawn “others – including small law firms and local councils serving our local communities – almost certainly will not be able to do so”.

She also feared the removal of funding would reinforce doubts about the credibility of solicitor apprenticeships, deterring “the very people that law firms wish to attract – high achieving school leavers from diverse backgrounds”.

This, she said, risked “undoing much of the hard work of City Century law firms in reassuring parents, teachers and students that there is genuine parity of esteem between the full-time university route and the solicitor apprenticeship route into City of London law”.