Work experience student Review

The work experience helped me develop skills such as debating and critical thinking, which are vital skills within the career sector I wish to go into. It also helped me better understand the world of work, especially the role and work life of a solicitor. The work experience also provided a lot of tips as to how to fill out applications which I found invaluable and there were many opportunities for me and others to ask any questions we had.

I thoroughly enjoyed my work experience as it was highly informative. It gave a lot of information on the life of solicitors, the different types of lawyers and how business is conducted. I also greatly appreciated the interactive elements of many of the sessions which encouraged debate and critical thinking within me and other students.

I was very impressed with the organisation of the programme as this is something that I really value. I liked that students were given a full plan for all three days to give an insight of what to expect from the work experience. There was also plenty of contact leading up to the start of the work experience which, again, was greatly appreciated. The layout of the programme through the forage website gave easy access to all of the sessions and they were clearly laid out. Each of the sessions all gave a brief description of what to expect.

Whilst I already knew quite a lot about the routes into law, the work experience helped to give advice and tips on how to research the different stages, as well as giving tips for applications and extracurricular activities which would boost these applications. I also learnt completely new things such as what an in-house lawyer was and what their role consists of. I also enjoyed the work misconduct session as it gave an insight into what quantified misconduct and how it could be assessed and dealt with.

I already had a fairly good idea of what I wanted to do, however I wanted to use the work experience to see if it was truly right for me, as well as gaining information about what day to day working life would be like. I felt the programme helped to provide me with this and further helped my enthusiasm for this career path.

There were no expenses for this experience, so I couldn't be reimbursed for these. There was also no payment given to students as the programme provided a more collaborative and informative role, as opposed to students being given specific valuable tasks to complete. Therefore there was no incentive to pay students.

There were many opportunities to ask questions of employees and professionals, including those at different stages in their careers. This was very helpful as there was a range of experiences which meant that I was able to gain an insight into many different stages of a career in law. For example, I greatly appreciated the trainee solicitors who were in the process of deciding what area of law they wanted to go into, as I myself have still got a long way to go in deciding that.

Yes

I think that the entire programme was very well organised and it was also ran well. I think it was also well planned in order to give students a wide range of information and interactive opportunities. I think all of the staff and representatives involved were very friendly and we're always giving opportunities for us to ask questions and find out more.

I would advise that they try to get as much as they can put of the experience. I would advise that they think of some questions to ask that will help them find out the information they want/need because there will be somebody who will have the answer you're looking for. I also think they should try and involve themselves as much as they can by taking part in every interactive session as much as they can, including the optional networking lunch. Finally, I would advise getting as much as they can out of the extra resources provided on forage, as they give a real insight into this career sector.