Mark Broadhead of Co-operative Financial Services explains how BPP's Access to Practice Scheme has benefited his company

It is unsurprising at a time when most organisations are tightening their belts that many law firms and in-house legal teams are taking a close look at their training commitments and conducting a cost-benefit analysis to decide whether such initiatives are sustainable.

According to Legal Week research in October last year, the overall availability of training contracts in the market has shrunk by 11% over the last three years, with the top 30 firms receiving an average of 35 applications for every place.

At Co-operative Financial Services (CFS), our cautious approach during the downturn has enabled us to continue focusing on important strategic social and community goals, including our legal team's support for would-be lawyers, particularly at a time when they most need it. We continue to commit to initiatives including BPP Law School's Access to Practice Scheme (APS) and offer two training contracts every two years, most recently in September 2010.

Access to Practice

BPP's APS operates in Leeds, London and Manchester and matches students without a training contract with mentors from in-house legal teams and private practice firms. The aim is to help students – particularly those with limited or no contacts within the legal profession – to obtain a training contract by giving them targeted advice and guidance.

Members of the CFS in-house legal team first entered the Manchester scheme in September 2009, and last year once again committed to take on three students, mentored by corporate and commercial solicitor Bernadette Noel and employment solicitors Jo Hurd and Emma Dobson.

The main requirement of the scheme is that mentors spend a minimum of five hours of contact time throughout the academic year helping the student, which can include assistance with researching potential law firms, completing a CV and giving advice on successful interview techniques.

At CFS we are aware, partly through our own training contract selection process, that what really helps students is work experience. As a result, we have opted to offer students the opportunity to spend time shadowing the CFS legal team in our offices. This year's three CFS mentors have collaborated to create a co-ordinated approach to helping their students, who spend time in each department and are given the sort of work that trainees would be expected to do.

Although providing work experience is not a requirement of the scheme, we wanted to provide this opportunity for our students. Work experience is invaluable and really enhances a student's CV. Being able to demonstrate practical legal experience is often crucial in securing a training contract.

As part of their informal placement at CFS, students are also offered a mock interview based on CFS' own rigorous training contract interview. While the mock interview isn't compulsory, we feel practice is more helpful than purely hypothetical advice – and feedback from previous students would suggest they agree.

Training contracts

CFS' legal team is largely based in Manchester and comprises 23 solicitors and 19 paralegals. It is divided into a corporate and commercial team, an employment team, a litigation team and a team of eight risk management and governance specialists.

Being a relatively large in-house legal team has enabled CFS to provide 12 training contracts since 2000 and make a long-term commitment to ensuring successful candidates receive the highest quality experience. The quality of work available to our trainees is on par with anything available from a premier commercial law firm.

James Drinkall qualified with CFS in September 2010 after a training contract that not only included a seat in each of our three main departments but a six-month secondment to the real estate department of Addleshaw Goddard, one of our panel firms.

James did apply to a number of private practice firms but was attracted to CFS by the opportunity to work directly for the client – CFS itself – both for its ethical and social values and the opportunities it would give him to gain hands-on commercial experience. "I think what has really benefited me is the relationship I have been able to build with my client; from day one I have been able to work closely with my colleagues in different parts of CFS and really understand what my legal advice means to the business. I think that has been a huge benefit to me during my training.

"During the Legal Practice Course you are told you must focus on commercial awareness, and having this experience firsthand both as a trainee and as a newly-qualified solicitor has been priceless," he says.

Moving forward

At CFS not only do we intend to continue our support for APS and maintain our training contract levels, but we are seriously considering providing vacation schemes to aspiring lawyers for the first time, in a move that will further our support for the profession. Like any other organisation, we need to be careful not to over-burden our solicitors with training obligations, but we are in a good position to embrace these opportunities to meet the talent of the future and provide real career prospects to those involved.

Because CFS avoided many of the risks taken by some of our competitors, we were able to better weather the financial crisis and maintain our long-term strategy. This enabled us to maintain our commitment to providing support and opportunities to young lawyers and these initiatives support the Co-operative's drive to help inspire young people across the local and wider business community.

Mark Broadhead is head of legal services and governance at Co-operative Financial Services.