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major_clangerThe Bar Standards Board - the body which regulates the training and discipline of barristers - has just published the Woods Report on the Bar Vocational Course. The BVC is the professional postgraduate diploma that aspiring barristers must complete between getting a law degree or conversion course and doing pupillage; I start mine, at BPP London, in September.
The Woods Report was aimed at two main issues affecting the current BVC. One is that it is sometimes seen as not providing the relevant skills needed to enter pupillage. The other, and in some ways more immediate concern, is that the BVC providers are seen as allowing too many weak candidates onto and through the course with little prospect of attaining a pupillage or tenancy as a barrister. The report's main conclusions are summarised here, but in essence the course was generally found fit for purpose (which is a relief, given how much I'm spending to do it) but recommendations were made to fine-tune it to better sit with current needs. Much more of the meat of the report went into the second issue, for which some very sobering statistics were supplied.
I've commented before about the mismatch between BVC student numbers and the availability of pupillages. The figures I'd seen are borne out by those quoted in the Woods report:
2004-5: 1665 registered BVC students, 497 pupillages.
2005-6: 1745 registered BVC students, 490 pupillages.
2006-7: 1932 registered BVC students, 471 pupillages.
The report notes that these numbers are for pupillages offered by independent Chambers, and that there are around another 30 a year offered by the employed bar (e.g. the Government Legal Service). Furthermore, some 23% of registered BVC students are from overseas and do not compete for pupillage in England and Wales. Even so, the ratio of pupillages to BVC students chasing them is around 3:1 and rising.
But what I've noted, but not seen figures on before, is that this encourages students who haven't been successful in getting a pupillage place before starting the BVC (i.e. ones like me!) to apply again once they have done the course. How many do this? The report only has figures for pupillages offered through the consolidated OLPAS system, but even so they are bordering on stunning. To quote para 28:
"In the present round 294 pupillages are offered under the OLPAS. 3,768 individual students have applied for them."
Now that 3,768 figure has to be seen in the light of two other factors. On the one hand, some of the people applying first-time around will not get onto the BVC, perhaps because they have conditional offers that they do not subsequently get the grades to fulfil. On the other, it won't include overseas students doing the BVC. I think it is still safe, however, to say the following:
There are nearly 13 applicants for every pupillage offered through OLPAS.
There are at least as many post-BVC as pre-BVC applicants.
Now these figures are for pupillages offered through OLPAS, but I see no reason why matters should differ for those Chambers which sit outside OLPAS. Indeed, there are reasons to suspect they may be even more competitive. But this probably goes a long way to explaining why somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of students on the BVC will - like me - not have secured pupillage.
So, I am in good company, but it is a very large good company and I will be competing with them all next year, plus another 1500-2000 new applicants. More important than ever, then, that I do all I can to maximise my chances of success. My action plan is:
1) Make sure I get a distinction in my LLM by doing the best dissertation I can,
2) Get papers published - I have two or three projects that might lead to this.
3) Speak at more conferences. Again, there are some prospects for next year.
4) Do more mini-pupillages, particularly at target Chambers I've not done MPs with yet.
5) Find relevant pro bono work.
6) Seek detailed careers advice from my law school and Inn.
The Woods Report was aimed at two main issues affecting the current BVC. One is that it is sometimes seen as not providing the relevant skills needed to enter pupillage. The other, and in some ways more immediate concern, is that the BVC providers are seen as allowing too many weak candidates onto and through the course with little prospect of attaining a pupillage or tenancy as a barrister. The report's main conclusions are summarised here, but in essence the course was generally found fit for purpose (which is a relief, given how much I'm spending to do it) but recommendations were made to fine-tune it to better sit with current needs. Much more of the meat of the report went into the second issue, for which some very sobering statistics were supplied.
I've commented before about the mismatch between BVC student numbers and the availability of pupillages. The figures I'd seen are borne out by those quoted in the Woods report:
2004-5: 1665 registered BVC students, 497 pupillages.
2005-6: 1745 registered BVC students, 490 pupillages.
2006-7: 1932 registered BVC students, 471 pupillages.
The report notes that these numbers are for pupillages offered by independent Chambers, and that there are around another 30 a year offered by the employed bar (e.g. the Government Legal Service). Furthermore, some 23% of registered BVC students are from overseas and do not compete for pupillage in England and Wales. Even so, the ratio of pupillages to BVC students chasing them is around 3:1 and rising.
But what I've noted, but not seen figures on before, is that this encourages students who haven't been successful in getting a pupillage place before starting the BVC (i.e. ones like me!) to apply again once they have done the course. How many do this? The report only has figures for pupillages offered through the consolidated OLPAS system, but even so they are bordering on stunning. To quote para 28:
"In the present round 294 pupillages are offered under the OLPAS. 3,768 individual students have applied for them."
Now that 3,768 figure has to be seen in the light of two other factors. On the one hand, some of the people applying first-time around will not get onto the BVC, perhaps because they have conditional offers that they do not subsequently get the grades to fulfil. On the other, it won't include overseas students doing the BVC. I think it is still safe, however, to say the following:
There are nearly 13 applicants for every pupillage offered through OLPAS.
There are at least as many post-BVC as pre-BVC applicants.
Now these figures are for pupillages offered through OLPAS, but I see no reason why matters should differ for those Chambers which sit outside OLPAS. Indeed, there are reasons to suspect they may be even more competitive. But this probably goes a long way to explaining why somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of students on the BVC will - like me - not have secured pupillage.
So, I am in good company, but it is a very large good company and I will be competing with them all next year, plus another 1500-2000 new applicants. More important than ever, then, that I do all I can to maximise my chances of success. My action plan is:
1) Make sure I get a distinction in my LLM by doing the best dissertation I can,
2) Get papers published - I have two or three projects that might lead to this.
3) Speak at more conferences. Again, there are some prospects for next year.
4) Do more mini-pupillages, particularly at target Chambers I've not done MPs with yet.
5) Find relevant pro bono work.
6) Seek detailed careers advice from my law school and Inn.
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OT
Date: 2008-07-28 11:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 11:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 11:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 11:35 am (UTC)Well, duh . I'm afraid. It's a license to print money (just like OS PG Masters courses, unfortunately.) I hope they do regulate it.
The Scottish system involves a joint one year course for would be solicitors and barristers (the Diploma) , followed by a one year traineeship that is same for both (in solicitor's office) then another year traineeship for solicitors, at which point devils go off to find their own devilmaster (sans funding as we've discussed). I wonder if a joint core isn't much fairer (althoug of course in Scotland it's mainly arisen from the difficulties of a small jurisdiction) given there would then be fall back to solicitor jobs of which there are of course far more.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 11:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 03:18 pm (UTC)Just like every other provider/regulator of HE, then? ;)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 11:36 am (UTC)You should note that you've already been competing with all these people and have managed several first interviews without the added benefit of a BVC or an extra year of experience. I guess they don't supply numbers of people getting first and second interviews at each stage?
no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 12:01 pm (UTC)I did find a quote from one barrister who noted that his Chambers had 600 applications for 3 pupillages, for which they held 30 first-round interviews. I suspect that a 10:1 ratio for first-round interviews is fairly realistic.
(Lets think about this, with those OLPAS numbers. OLPAS lets you apply for 12 pupillages at once, and everyone recommends that you use all 12 slots - after all, why not? So those 3,768 applicants will actually have made some 45,000 individual pupillage applications for those 294 pupillages, i.e. some 150 per pupillage on offer, which is in line with the quote I've just mentioned. Chambers will have to discard at least 90% of those through a sift of the OLPAS form just to get the first-round interview stage down to a manageable size.)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 01:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 01:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 03:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 07:43 pm (UTC)Do they provide any insights into how the people who do not secure pupillage use their legal qualifications?
no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-01 09:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-01 09:58 am (UTC)