A year from its inception, the PRIME work experience scheme has attracted big name firms wanting to give school children from poor backgrounds a foot in the door of the legal industry. Neil Hodge reports

Given the awful fact that it is now harder to enter the legal profession than it was 30 years ago, over the past few years many of the UK's largest law firms have set up schemes to reach out to schoolchildren to encourage them to apply for work experience.

The basic aim is to target children from disadvantaged backgrounds – those living in deprived areas with long-term unemployed parents – and show them that working in a law firm (not necessarily as a lawyer) is not automatically beyond their reach.

The most well-known scheme is PRIME, thanks in large part to its heavyweight membership: magic circle firms such as Allen & Overy (A&O), DLA Piper and Eversheds are all signatories. It is an initiative to provide greater access for schoolchildren from disadvantaged backgrounds to get some work experience in the legal profession, with a longer-term hope of encouraging some to consider law as a career.

Founded in 2011, PRIME aims to show children – typically from the age of 15 upwards – the range of career options that can be available to them within a law firm: not only being a lawyer, but also working in IT, marketing and HR.

The initiative aims to provide 2,500 quality work experience places across the country by 2015 – equating to broadly 50% of training contracts in the UK. Figures are not yet available to see if that target is on track, but the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) is due to provide an independent evaluation of law firms' efforts so far shortly. Law firms have declined to comment whether this target is on track.

A glittering premiere

So far and within a year of its launch, PRIME has more than 80 law firms signed up to it with plans to recruit more (there were 23 signatories at its launch), with members launching social mobility programmes that follow PRIME's principles. For example, in March Slaughter and May – together with educational charity The Access Project – launched its 'Key Project', an initiative at Central Foundation Boys' School in Islington, north London, where many of the pupils are disadvantaged (more than 70% of the students have claimed free school meals). The scheme will provide students with a programme of weekly one-to-one tutorials, after-school workshops and career insight events at the firm.

DLA Piper carried out its first week of PRIME work experience in its London office at the end of May with a dozen Year 9 students from Highbury Grove school in Islington. The next batch will arrive in October, with another 12 students from the same school coming to the London office.

Hogan Lovells' 'Ladder to Law' is an initiative designed to inspire Year 10 to 12 students from a variety of different social backgrounds to consider law as a career – eight London schools are currently taking part. Clifford Chance runs a number of work experience programmes for ambitious Year 12 students from disadvantaged backgrounds. It also invites more than 400 students to the firm for its 'Raising Aspirations' education days. One former participant, Orin Begum, has said that the week's work experience was "incredibly insightful" and that it gave him the confidence to apply for a job at the firm.

Eversheds' 'Unlocked' scheme is aimed at state school students who have academic potential and an interest in law, but who may believe that a legal career is out of their reach. The programme – run in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds and Manchester – is designed to give a complete view of the careers available within the legal sector, as well as help participants to develop key skills that they will need in the future.

Herbert Smith's 'Networked' programme is a five-year scholarship scheme that provides experience, financial support and guidance to talented Year 12 students who aspire to a career in the law or a related discipline.

Jane Masey, diversity manager at A&O, says that as part of its commitment to PRIME, the firm offers 150 work placements a year – out of a total of 700 work placements, the largest number from any of the law firms. A&O provides a minimum of 30 hours of work experience to each candidate, which tends to take place over a week.

The firm has been running its 'Smart Start' programme to provide work experience for disadvantaged London students for the past four years, with ongoing support provided by its mentoring programme 'Smarter Futures', which now also provides university bursaries for six students from the borough of Tower Hamlets.

Masey says: "Rather than shadowing lawyers, students take part in a series of workshops throughout the week aimed at building confidence and developing skills, from improving personal impact, to analysing, negotiation, presentation and team working.

"These are useful skills that the students can take with them into their career of choice. There are also opportunities to have time with lawyers and to ask questions about the profession and how they have progressed their careers."

Addleshaw Goddard has also taken a dual approach to help disadvantaged children by focusing on sixth-formers and those who intend to take a law degree. The firm took on 19 sixth-form students in August for a week's worth of work experience. The children are from schools that Addleshaws has a connection with, such as Leeds' Notre Dame Sixth Form College, where the firm does a mentoring programme for law as a career.

The work experience is geared for both those students who are considering applying for a law degree at university, and those who are still undecided. It features work shadowing, court trips, skills sessions and learning exercises, which partners, trainees and associates from the across the firm help deliver. It is the second time that Addleshaws has run the scheme in Leeds and London, and the first time in Manchester.

The firm also has a 'Legal Access Week', which is part of its 'Legal Access Scheme'. This identifies graduates whose academic record may not reflect their true intellect or potential, and fast-tracks them on to a summer placement scheme.

Star retention

Mary Gallagher, Addleshaws' diversity and talent manager, says: "We recruit 40% of our trainees from our summer scheme and assess our vacation students while in role. Legal Access Scheme candidates who do well are offered an assessment centre place, and successful candidates a training contract. To date, 21 participants have secured training contracts with us."

She adds: "Social mobility is a real focus for our firm. We have combined an approach which raises aspiration and understanding of legal careers at school level, while at the same time amending our graduate recruitment process to ensure that talented individuals who come from less privileged or alternative backgrounds are able to successfully apply to our firm."

Gallagher says that the firm plans to keep in touch with the students through mentoring and alumni events.

These schemes are still in their infancy, but – so far – law firms are impressed with the reception they are getting, and the calibre of students that their programmes are attracting. Masey says that "we want PRIME to act as a 'kitemark' for disadvantaged children in the UK so that they can get access to professional work experience".

"We have been impressed by the level of engagement we've had from students and schools, as well as the willingness of law firms to work together under one banner and give their support to help achieve this," she adds.

Janet Legrand, senior elected board member at DLA Piper and a PRIME board member, says that student feedback has been great: "All of the students stated that the experience had increased their understanding of the types of jobs that are available in professional organisations, and 94% said that they had a greater understanding of what they would like to do in their future career.

"This has got to be good news. The whole point of the programme is to shed light on the range of jobs that are available here and to encourage students to think that they are capable of doing them in the future."

Legrand also says that the students' willingness to learn from the experience has also been gratifying: "There have been some children who have asked some really pertinent and insightful questions. They have a very honest and open approach and it's great to see how they engage with the programme."

Supporting acts

While PRIME may be the highest-profile work experience scheme in the legal profession, it is by no means the only one. Several other law firms have developed their own schemes to improve social mobility and attempt to interest children from under-privileged areas in a career in law. For example, City law firm Bates Wells & Braithwaite runs a work experience programme for children aged 15 upwards, which is open to candidates from any background. This year, 27 work experience students took part between June and August.

Peter Bennett, the firm's partnership executive officer, says: "The work experience programmes mainly take place in the admin department, where students are given the opportunity to get involved in a number of tasks, such as photocopying, binding, delivering post, as well as assisting at internal events. The firm also has a smaller number of students who get the opportunity to sit in one of our legal departments and shadow one of our solicitors during their work experience."

And then there are major efforts such as Leeds Legal's Education Week, the largest annual volunteering initiative in Yorkshire for the legal sector. Aimed at primary school children aged between 10 and 12 years old, in the past five years it has seen more than 800 volunteers from the legal sector give 5,374 hours to help develop the future career aspirations of about 4,000 children by visiting schools in the city's most deprived areas where career aspiration is generally low (many students are from second, third or even fourth generation unemployed families).

Under the theme 'The World of Work', the volunteers deliver focused workshops outlining the different roles that exist within law firms. Alan Baker, Leeds Legal's chairman, says: "The event is about showing children that there are jobs that they can aspire to that they may simply not be aware of. You don't need to be a lawyer to work in a law firm. There are opportunities to work in marketing, customer services, IT, and so on. It is about showing children that they can get jobs even if their parents have been unable to."

Volunteers have been enthusiastic about the initiative, and the benefits it can bring.

A volunteer from solicitors firm Clarion said: "I feel my volunteering time has been extremely beneficial to the school and the pupils, giving them an insight into the daily life of a worker and the potential careers out there that they would not normally come across.

"Planting the seed early about the need to work and the important reasons behind finding employment is paramount."