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18 Feature

Continued from front cover...

Bank, Harlequins, Manches- who have made a commit- but the LSMP is an impor-
ter United Foundation, ment to broaden access to tant step in breaking down
Squire Patton Boggs, Eng- the legal profession. any real or imagined glass
lish RFU, Wigan Warriors ceiling.”
Rugby League Club, The Barry Matthews, Director of
Blair Partnership (JK Rowl- Legal Affairs & Third Party
ing’s Agent), Viacom Inter- Sales, ITV said: “All of us in- Legal Social Mobility
national Media Networks, volved in the scheme feel Partnership Q&As
FremantleMedia, BT, Yahoo, strongly that entry in to the
Barclays Bank PLC, Nomura, legal sector should be a
Land Securities, Arnold & meritocratic process with- 1. How does this scheme
Porter, Addleshaw Goddard, out social barriers. Our fit in with PRIME? Is it a
Eversheds, DLA Piper, Reed scheme encourages stu- separate initiative?
Smith, Bird & Bird, Charles dents to build their confi-
Russell Speechlys, Berwin dence through The Work Insight and Skills
Leighton Paisner, White & demystifying our organisa- Programme (the ‘pro-
Case, Buzzacott, The Myers tions with multiple work in- gramme’) delivered by the
and Briggs Foundation, sights and providing them LSMP fits the criteria set out
Kemp Little, Powa Technolo- with intensive skills training; by PRIME, but it’s important
gies, LexisNexis and Trail- this in turn gives them a to note that this is a sepa- All the students at Wigan Warriors during the commercial week.
blazer Legal wealth of ammunition to rate initiative. Not all law
Apprenticeships Employers populate their CVs and an- firms taking part in the away feeling like they can already interested in partic- 9. There are 106 students
Group. swers to questions posed at LMSP are members of make great careers in the ipating in 2016, including in being supported on this
interview. PRIME. PRIME is a commit- legal profession. That will Birmingham. programme this year com-
Following the considerable ment to provide high qual- make a big difference in pared to 20 students last
success of the inaugural We have designed the LSMP ity work experience to how these students present 7. What do Harlequins and year. Do you plan to grow
Work Insight and Skills Pro- to be an easily imple- less-privileged school-aged themselves when they Wigan Warriors have to do it further?
gramme (the 'programme') mentable model, which we students. apply for university, work, or with a career in the law?
in 2014, the LSMP has now hope will encourage others anything related to their ca- We’re really excited that the
grown extensively in scale to replicate it.The fact that 2. How has it changed reers. They also now have The Harlequins and Wigan programme has grown this
for its second year, with our own scheme has from last year? elite companies and law Warriors have a unique per- year, and that’s because we
places for 106 students, quadrupled the number of firms on their CVs, so their spective that will add an in- think the students have two
compared to 20 last year students involved in just It has grown in scale but the applications are certainly valuable element to the great weeks lined up. Our
and extending reach to the one year demonstrates just programme remains the going to stand out from the programme. They use pro- aim is to see more students
Greater Manchester area. how achievable this is.” same. In 2014 we had one crowd. fessional performance accessing and engaging
Participating organisations cluster of students in Lon- coaches to help their play- with the legal profession,
have risen in number more Angelica, who participated don, whereas this year we 5. Has any effort been ers understand teamwork, but the quality of the expe-
than twofold, from 14 to 33. in the LSMP last year, said: “I have four clusters of stu- made to measure the pro- leadership and resilience, all rience is key. We plan to
The benefit of having more used the experience in my dents: three in London and gramme’s benefits? of which are crucial skills for show firms and companies
companies involved is the personal statement and it one in Manchester. In 2014 the working world and that even with more stu-
ability to increase scale and has helped me get all my of- there were 20 students on We are in the process of cre- working in the legal profes- dents on board, we were
provide the students with fers at university. I’m work- the programme and 14 or- ating a LinkedIn Alumni sion. We are delighted they able to provide a quality,
insights into more sectors, ing really hard now to get ganisations. This year will Group, which will enable us agreed to support the initia- meaningful programme
but the structure of the pro- the grades, and I know the see 106 students involved to share employability and tive and provide workshops where they develop work
gramme remains the same. course has made such a dif- and 33 organisations. The mentoring opportunities, as around these skills. It just insights and skills. We want
The programme runs for ference to believe in myself, benefit of having more well as being able to keep in shows that no matter what to encourage others to
two weeks over the school be more ambitious and companies involved is that touch with students to track your sector, every type of replicate our model, rather
summer holidays. The stu- have so much more confi- the students will get in- their progress into univer- organisation will have than us setting in place
dents will spend the first dence.” sights into more sectors, but sity and the working world. something they can add to plans to grow the pro-
week with their partner law the structure of the pro- We’re also inviting students helping young people de- gramme.
firm in which they will par- Other participating stu- gramme remains the same. from last year’s LSMP back velop their skills.
ticipate in a variety of skills dents said: to our 2015 graduation so 10. Why are there so many
based workshops and re- 3. Who is running the they can talk to their succes- 8. How many days do stu- businesses and firms in-
ceive numerous workplace Hashim said: “My highlights show – ITV? sors on the programme. dents spend at each of the volved?
insights. In week two, they would definitely have to be LSMP businesses and
will come together to spend the time I spent at the differ- It is a real collaborative ef- 6. Do you hope to involve firms? We didn’t put a restriction
a day with high profile ent clients as each one was fort and all organisations in- more clients/sectors in the on the number of busi-
clients of the partner law different and great in their volved have contributed future? Each law firm provides a nesses that could support
firms, gaining further skills own way. I also enjoyed towards the development week of high quality work the programme. Those we
training and insights into meeting many of the differ- of the programme. Over the The aim is that LSMP, as an insight and skills training to spoke to were excited by
the workings of leading in- ent lawyers and intend to course of the past two years, easily replicated model, can a group of students from the initiative and wanted to
house legal teams. In addi- keep in contact with some the firms, in-house teams grow to become a truly na- their partner school. The get involved.
tion, they will attend of them.” and others that signed up to tional programme. This is students from the numer-
resilience and motivational support the scheme have not meant to be a unique ous schools then come to- 11. Do all the stu-
workshops hosted by the Siobhan said: “I’ve ap- worked like a committee to work experience initiative – gether in one group and dents on the programme
Harlequins in London and proached my final year at agree a uniform pro- we hope others will be in- spend a day at each of the want to go into law?
Wigan Warriors and Harle- college in a totally different gramme for all four clusters spired to replicate the businesses on the pro-
quins in Manchester. way; I feel more driven and of students. Indeed, the model next year, and we gramme. Where the stu- The students have been se-
motivated to succeed.” scheme developed from the can help to support them to dents spend time depends lected in various ways, de-
The students will take part success of a joint initiative do that. on the cluster they are in. pending on the partnership
in workshops to develop Shannon said: ”I’m thinking between Slaughter and May For instance, the Westmin- between the law firm and
their employability skills, differently about myself and and ITV in 2013, and both We want to demonstrate ster Kingsway students’ sec- school. For example,
which will encompass writ- I hope that if I become suc- continue to play big roles in the success of the model so ond week looks like: day 1 at Slaughter and May run a
ten and oral communica- cessful I can help create organising and running the that no matter how small Harlequins, day 2 at Yahoo, competitive process that
tion skills, interviewing, something similar for other LSMP. your firm or in-house team, day 3 at Microsoft, day 4 at provides students with an
influencing, networking, re- young people so they can you can replicate the pro- Viacom International Media experience of what it is like
silience, negotiation and be inspired.” 4. Did any students bene- gramme with peers in the Networks and day 5 at ITV. to apply to jobs in the real
self-awareness. It is in- fit last year? same sector, or even from a Over the course of the two world. They submit a CV and
tended that attending the John Dowd, Headmaster, variety of sectors. The pro- week programme, the stu- covering letter, then attend
programme will arm the Haverstock School said: The feedback from the stu- gramme has already ex- dents will also receive work- an interview at the firm. The
students with experience “This newly enlarged part- dents showed that they def- panded in 2015, with over shops on a range of skills students who are most mo-
that can be included in their nership is a wonderful op- initely benefitted from the 80 students benefiting as delivered by other busi- tivated and would get the
CVs and directly drawn portunity for our students programme – all of them part of the London pro- nesses that wanted to sup- most out of the programme
upon during their future to get some early exposure said that they improved gramme this year, in addi- port the programme get a place. At other firms,
university and job inter- to the corporate world their self-confidence and tion to the launch of the first including: LexisNexis, Kemp students are put forward by
views. The LSMP builds on within a legal setting. 95% said they had more regional cluster in Manches- Little, Buzzacott and Powa the school because they are
the success of PRIME, an al- Clearly, many students as- motivation to achieve their ter. Next year, we hope to Technologies. interested in a career in the
liance of law firms and legal sume that the legal profes- goals as a result of being on grow LSMP further, with law and would get a lot
departments across the UK sion is inaccessible to them the programme. They came several new organisations from the programme.