The future of apprenticeships in the legal profession

Rhicha Kapila, partner and chief operating officer at Bolt Burdon Kemp, outlines how the government’s latest decision to scrap level 7 apprenticeship funding for those aged over 21 will impact SME law firms.

The news many law firms were dreading came from the government recently — the level 7 (L7) apprenticeships will be scrapped for those over the age of 21. This means that from January 2026, only those aged between 16 and 21 will qualify for funding for the L7 apprenticeships — while the rest of these apprenticeships will have to be funded by employers.

The L7 (higher or professional) apprenticeships create an alternative qualification path for graduates that cannot or don’t want to go down the traditional route. Under the scheme, the apprentice spends 80% of their time working for their employer and the rest of their time working towards their L7 qualification through a training provider. Where this route differs from many others into the legal profession is that the apprentice is paid, and they don’t have to pay for training.

By comparison, the ‘traditional’ route into law could cost up to £80,000. This includes the cost of an undergraduate degree — which according to the National Student Money Survey is about £67,494 — and the cost of the Solicitor Qualifying Exams (SQE) and course. This cost acts as a real barrier to entering the legal profession, so apprenticeships are incredibly important to address the lack of diversity and social mobility in the legal sector — which remains a big issue.

The numbers clearly show the positive impact of L7 apprenticeships on improving social mobility in this industry. A report by Damar, which surveyed 110 solicitor apprentices, showed that 94% attended a state school, and a third came from working-class backgrounds. Nearly 90% of the apprentices worked outside London and over 70% of employers were in-house or working for public sector teams or smaller law firms with annual payrolls of less than £3m.

Changing L7 apprenticeships and restricting the age of who can apply does seem like a step backwards — especially when you consider social mobility is improving so slowly in the legal sector. There are concerns that these changes to the L7 scheme will close doors for people who would struggle to enter the legal profession via the usual academic route.

At Bolt Burdon Kemp, we have hired four legal apprentices so far and have plans to expand our scheme, as we can see how successful it’s been. One of our apprentices believes the scheme has made all the difference to their career: “I do not believe I would currently be working towards qualifying as a solicitor today if not for the apprenticeship route. I chose the apprenticeship route because without the L7 apprenticeship I wouldn’t have been able to pursue a career in law. Coming from a low-income household, I wouldn’t have been able to fund the SQE exams or the prep course without the apprenticeship route.”

In light of the most recent announcement, we firmly believe age shouldn’t be a barrier to having an accessible route into the legal profession.

When the government announced plans to scrap the L7 scheme last year, we lobbied against it. We raised concerns with the Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith, wrote to the Shadow Education Minister, and met with our MP. Shadow Minister Neil O’Brien MP even quoted us in Parliament to stress how vital the scheme is for social mobility in law.

The recent decision to retain the scheme is welcome, but the introduction of an age cap is disappointing and risks shutting out those entering law later in life. We’ll continue to press for its removal and urge others in the legal sector to speak out too.

For SME law firms, it’s important to factor this change into future recruitment plans and consider carefully how social mobility can be supported and preserved — although I appreciate that some small firms will not be able to offer an alternative and invest in a different path for training lawyers from a less privileged background. Ultimately, if we don’t do anything about this, the whole profession will suffer as a result.