Employer FAQs

An apprenticeship is a job that requires substantial and sustained training, leading to the achievement of an apprenticeship standard and the development of transferable skills. This definition is underpinned by four principles:

• An apprenticeship is a job, in a skilled occupation
• An apprenticeship requires substantial and sustained training, lasting a minimum of 12 months and including off-the-job training
• An apprenticeship leads to full competency in an occupation, demonstrated by the achievement of an apprenticeship standard that is defined by employers
• An apprenticeship develops transferable skills, including English and maths, to progress careers.

The apprenticeship standard for each occupation is developed by a group of employers working together to design standards for occupations within their sectors. Professional bodies and training providers are also involved. The CILEx Group has contributed to the standards for the legal sector.

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We recommend that all organisations employ apprentices. If you pay the employer levy (ie if your payroll is over £3 million), you can only get the benefit of that money if you draw it down to apply to your own apprentices’ training. If you don’t pay the levy, you can benefit from 95% government funding (from 1 April 2019) of the cost of training apprentices 100% of the costs if you have fewer than 50 employees. Apprenticeship programmes are tailored to sector needs, so they are an ideal way of recruiting new talent or developing current employees who have the aptitude for career progression. At CILEx Law School we have the expertise and experience to advise you from planning an apprenticeship programme right through the recruitment process to the delivery of training and advice on post-completion progression for successful apprentices. We have been leaders in the introduction of apprentices to the legal sector and are truly specialists in this field. Many organisations are not set up to recruit potential fee earners at school leaver level and we can bring our expertise to the table in this and also help you to navigate the waters of government funding.

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CILEx qualifications offer flexible training options for staff at all levels. Over 60% of our students are sponsored by their employers. This can be a firm paying the course fees and CILEx membership fees for one individual to qualify as a Chartered Legal Executive, through to an employer client or whom we deliver CILEx training in the context of an in-house CILEx ‘academy’ as part of a strategic staff development initiative. CILEx courses can fulfil many development objectives: the Level 3 Certificate in Law and Practice is an ideal introductory paralegal qualification available in ten practice areas. The CILEx Graduate Fast-track Diploma enables your law graduate paralegals to obtain a vocational qualification and can lead to becoming a Chartered Legal Executive if accompanied by work which meets CILEx’s qualifying employment requirements. Qualified Chartered Legal Executives and solicitors can use our CILEx Level 6 courses in 20 law and legal practice areas to refresh or develop knowledge to a highly specialised level.

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We are an award-winning provider for legal apprenticeship provision, and have 35 years’ experience in delivering legal training to those employed in the legal sector. We currently have over 500 apprentices placed with client organisations. Additionally, more than 4,000 students are enrolled on legal training courses, leading to CILEx vocational qualifications, most of whom are sponsored by their legal sector employers. We were set up in 1983 to deliver distance learning courses for qualifications awarded by the Institute of Legal Executives (now the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives) to legal secretaries and legal clerks wishing to gain the qualifications whilst continuing with their work. Although we have expanded our range of qualifications to include law at all levels, we have always remained a specialist distance learning law school. We are a not-for-profit organisation wholly owned by the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, and have been delivering legal training for 35 years.

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We offer courses for 19 CILEx Level 3 units and 22 CILEx Level 6 units, all of which are available to study individually for subject knowledge. As well as offering ‘off-the-shelf’ CILEx qualifications, we can use develop courses to deliver knowledge and skills specific to the needs of a particular job role. For example we are currently delivering training to Highways England, using our CILEx Level 3 courses in Land Law and Conveyancing adapted to include additional material on compulsory purchase and other topics. We have also amended and supplemented our standard course in the Law of Tort for a firm of liability adjustors, to incorportate their requirements to include specialist content on the insurance market. We are happy to tailor materials to deliver bespoke courses to clients in the private or public sector.

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