Paralegal Apprentice Review

Work that I do includes legal drafting, review documents, redacting personal data, issuing documents for signing, liaising with solicitors and clients and researching companies information. I also participate in pro bono and charity work.

I have developed existing soft skills such as interpersonal, problem solving and organisational skills but also learnt practical skills such as legal drafting, research and information analysis

I enjoy working with a wide range of people and have a good network of support however the work can sometimes be very repetitive; you can be on the same project for weeks doing the same thing day in day out.

The learning side of the programme is structure ok, but is a lot more soft skills focused than legal knowledge focused, also the communication with the training provider has been poor. Although on completion of the programme, nothing really changes and you will just be continuing the same work at the same level, additionally the opportunities to further your qualification are minimal and the route of progression was not made clear to me at the start of my apprenticeship which is something which I think needs improvement.

I receive a good amount of support from my employer in general, however there have been times where I could have been supported better and have ended up working excessive hours.

The support I receive is ok, however I have struggled with communication and getting answers to my questions.

The legal knowledge I learn from my training provider isn't that relevant to the area of law that I work in, and I feel the soft skills they teach are much better developed in the workplace rather than online learning.

There are lots of things you can get involved with, however they may not be immediately obvious so it is worth asking around to better understand your options.

Yes

It is a big firm and if you are reliable there are opportunities to get involved in lots of different types of work.

Do research into the types of work they do and try to build your commercial awareness to better understand how law firms work. I would highlight transferable skills you have learnt from other endeavours that could help you excel in an apprentice role.