Michelle Blackwell is a Legal Apprentice at Bevan Brittan LLP who previously won the CILEX Apprentice of the Year Award.
What made you choose the CILEX route?
I initially started working at my law firm straight after completing my A Levels. I applied for both the university and apprenticeship route and then as it got towards the end of my A Levels and I was waiting for my exams, I started going to more and more apprenticeship open days and assessment centres at different law firms. I’d already had a week’s work experience working at a criminal law firm so I had that background behind me and I knew that law was something that I found really interesting.
As it got towards considering which options, as I did get into university as well, I wanted to be one hundred percent certain that law was the correct route for me and I didn’t want to go through three or four years of university, have that debt to then either struggle to find a job or a training contract or change my mind about it so I almost wanted to get the on-hands experience and do my qualifications alongside working so I always felt apprenticeships were the better option out of the two.
How did you manage your studies and working at the same time whilst undertaking your apprenticeship?
The studying side of things alongside working was quite stressful to manage in the beginning because it’s quite a new experience to be working and also thinking about, you know, I need to study for this exam but my firm were really good, they would give me a day’s study leave every week and also time off leading up to the exams so I definitely felt well prepared when it did come to the actual time of taking the exam.
The course for me was six years all together so I did an initial two years doing Level 3 exams, then an additional year doing the rest of the Level 3 exams and then I progressed onto Level 6 so I do feel like there was a clear pathway and structure of progression in finishing the exams and I thought that was really helpful.
When you were studying with CILEX, did you find that what you were learning was relevant to your job role?
Yes I think you almost have to balance what you want to do because when you think of a training contract, you’ll get experience in four different seats whereas with the CILEX route it is quite specialised but in a good way because you have six years of experience versus someone that’s just coming out of university who would only really have six months in that seat before they would then qualify. So I definitely think it’s a beneficial thing, especially if you land in an area of law that you really find interesting. I’m currently in Clinical Negligence and find that really interesting and the certain exams that I would sit would also compliment my work so it almost went hand in hand.
When I was taking the exams that were relevant to my practice area, it was almost like things were clicking into place and I could recall a lot of the information better.
What did graduating mean to you?
It was such a nice experience to almost have that finality of the six year course because it was a long time coming and then we had the pandemic so that almost felt like it prolonged everything but it was a really nice day and really made me feel proud of myself to realise that I can achieve anything that I do set my mind to so it’s just almost reinforcing that belief. It was really nice to have all my family there to support me and to see everyone else also graduate was really, really lovely.
What would you say to anyone considering the apprenticeship/CILEX route?
I think if anyone is considering the CILEX route, it is definitely something that I wouldn’t change for the world. I think looking back, I’ve had so many opportunities and experiences that I wouldn’t have had if I had gone to university and gone down the more traditional route. For example even just getting your foot into a law firm where they can see how you work, they can see how much effort you want to put into your career, that is really something that is invaluable and having that experience in a specific area is really helpful as well.
For me I was really fortunate to be a part of a lot of the government campaigns around apprenticeships so I was involved in the “Fire It Up” national campaign and did the posters and TV adverts so that in itself was such a worthwhile experience that again I wouldn’t trade if I was to go back and decide whether I wanted to go to university or the apprenticeship route, I’d choose the apprenticeship route.
What’s next?