This pages provides help and links for finding summer vacation schemes, mini-pupillages, other legal work experience and graduate internships.<\/p>\n
To ensure that opportunities offered exclusively to KLS students are only made available to KLS students the identity of work experience providers and the related Job Descriptions will be posted to DP237025 on Moodle <\/strong>when they are available.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n How to find out more:\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Go to the KLS Employability and Career Development Moodle<\/a> (DP237025) page for full information.<\/p>\n If you have secured some unpaid work experience\u00a0you could be entitled to up to \u00a3250 from the Careers and Employability Service to help with expenses.\u00a0 To be eligible you must be a student registered with the University of Kent, studying in the UK; your work experience must be taking place within the UK; the total duration of your work experience must be no longer than 3 weeks (120 hours); you must be returning to university for at least a term after completing your work experience.<\/p>\n The bursary will primarily contribute towards out-of-pocket travel expenses. However, in exceptional circumstances, contributions towards accommodation,\u00a0food costs, work clothing or childcare\u00a0will be considered. Full terms and conditions are available on the website https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/ces\/funding.html<\/a><\/p>\n The University (in line with the NUS) does not support unpaid internships\/work experience of more than 3-4 weeks.\u00a0 This is so that we do not endorse exploitation.\u00a0 \u00a0Find out about your rights from the Government – https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/employment-rights-for-interns<\/span><\/u><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 The following are interesting and informative articles which will help you to identify whether your internship should be paid:<\/p>\n The HRLA can support you to take up internships, work placements and other either unpaid or poorly paid work in human rights law. The HRLA bursary scheme<\/a> assist law students (at any stage of study) or those who have recently graduated, in undertaking such work.\u00a0 \u00a0The provide at least one grant of \u00a33,500 and a number of small awards up to \u00a31,500.\u00a0 \u00a0The bursary money is to be used to enable the successful applicants to undertake work related to human rights law that he or she would otherwise be unable to afford to do. That work need not take place in the United Kingdom, but it must be relevant to human rights law in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n The following all offer tips on self-analysis, research, law fairs and where to seek help:<\/p>\n A Vacation Scheme (VS) is a very structured and formal experience offered by law firms who recruit trainee solicitors.\u00a0 You must always remember that a VS targeted at university students is part of the firm’s recruitment process and not part of their Corporate Social Responsibility agenda (unlike schemes targeted at school aged students).\u00a0 What does this mean for you?\u00a0 It means that when you apply for a VS you are effectively saying that you are potentially interested in this firm as your future employer and thus, your application needs to be specifically targeted to the firm with good research and clear motivation about why the firm is of interest to you.\u00a0 \u00a0 A VS typically lasts 1-2 weeks but can be as much as 4.\u00a0 Most are paid.<\/p>\n A mini-pupillage (MPs) is a short period of time shadowing a barrister.\u00a0 \u00a0It is normal for an MP to be between 2-5 days and unpaid (be prepared to spend money on trains to get to court).\u00a0 \u00a0An MP may be offered formally by a set of Chambers – in this instance, you will apply directly to the Chambers and, if you are selected, you may spend time during your MP in both Chambers and court with one or more barristers who have been selected\/volunteered.\u00a0 \u00a0However, many people organise MPs directly with a barrister of their choosing.\u00a0 In this instance, you research who you want to spend time with (maybe someone you have met; someone working in the Chambers or area of law that is of interest to you; someone you have a connection – you know them\/a family member knows them\/you went to the same school\/grew up in the same village etc.) and organise it directly.<\/p>\n Assessed Mini-Pupillages<\/strong>:\u00a0 It’s worth mentioning these.\u00a0 \u00a0An assessed MP is a structured and formal MP which a set of Chambers may offer as part of their recruitment process i.e. they are looking for their future pupils.\u00a0 \u00a0During such an MP you are likely to be tasked with a research and drafting exercise which you are expected to present to a panel.\u00a0 \u00a0There are not many of these MPs so don’t worry if you don’t find any.<\/p>\n …there are lots more to come so keep using this page as it will grow over the coming year!<\/p>\n Firms and legal departments who don’t offer formal vacation schemes are often very willing to offer informal work experience.\u00a0 \u00a0Experiences vary considerably from observation to easy administrative tasks to undertaking the type of work that a paralegal or trainee would do.<\/p>\n Tips for finding informal work experience:<\/p>\n Legal work experience in England & Wales is not often referred to as an ‘internship’ although this is common across the rest of the world or for\u00a0 opportunities for those who have already graduated (see separate page of infor).\u00a0 \u00a0As you will see from the above formalised opportunities tend to be called Vacation Schemes and limited to 1-4 weeks or, at the Bar, mini-pupillages typically of 2-5 days.\u00a0 Outside of this informal work experience in law firms or legal departments is a great way to build experience but we recommend that you restrict unpaid w.exp to 3 weeks so as to avoid exploitation.\u00a0 \u00a0I often see students who have work for the entire summer in a law firm\/legal department who started by doing work experience and this was then converted into paid work.\u00a0 In this instance, you could call it an internship on your CV but the employer probably won’t use this terminology.<\/p>\n On the other hand, there is a growing number of virtual internships.\u00a0 See the separate page on this topic.<\/p>\n The Lawyers with Disabilities Division of the Law Society\u00a0works with employers in the legal sector to offer work experience opportunities to their members. A number of employers are take part in the scheme including law firms in private practice, and in-house departments from the public and private sectors.<\/p>\n The work experience scheme can offer you:<\/p>\n You will need to be a member of LDD<\/u>,<\/a><\/span> which is free to join as long as you meet the membership criteria.<\/p>\n See here<\/a> for full information.<\/p>\n How to apply\u00a0 – <\/strong>the application window is usually February –\u00a0\u00a0March each year.\u00a0\u00a0You will need to apply by letter and CV.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Summer internship opportunities available to apply to now with; Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Shell, Google and the FCA, as well as Graduate programmes with Shell, Google & the FCA.<\/p>\n All opportunities can be accessed at: www.employ-ability.org.uk\/internships<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n see separate page<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This pages provides help and links for finding summer vacation schemes, mini-pupillages, other legal work experience and graduate internships. Work\u00a0Experience for KLS Students To ensure … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34794,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/getintolaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/getintolaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/getintolaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/getintolaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/getintolaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":157,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/getintolaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4176,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/getintolaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions\/4176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/getintolaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The following opportunities are usually available on an annual basis:<\/strong><\/h5>\n
\n
Funding work experience<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
1. UNIVERSITY OF KENT WORK and OPPORTUNITIES FUND<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
2. Unpaid Internships\/Work Experience <\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
3. Human Rights Lawyer Association Bursary Scheme:\u00a0<\/strong><\/u><\/span><\/h4>\n
How to find work experience: vacation schemes; mini-pupillages; marshalling; internships\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\n
1. Vacation Schemes<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
Other useful links<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
\n
2. Mini-Pupillages<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\n
Other Legal Work Experience <\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
\n
Informal Work Experience<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\n
A word about internships<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
VIRTUAL INTERNSHIPS<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
Support for students with disabilities<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
1. Solicitors work experience for students with disabilities<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
2. EmployAbility: Opportunities for disabled & dyslexic students & graduates <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
GRADUATE INTERNSHIPS<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n