subject: New Law Exam Set To Change The Route Into A Career In Law [print this page] The Law Society has recently begun looking into whether or not people who wish to become lawyers should be forced to take a separate test before they embark on vocational training.
The new test could stop students unnecessarily spending large sums of money in order to complete the LPC course which can cost 12,500 in total. The new investigation is going to be carried out to manage the large volumes of students currently applying.
The Law Society has taken a long time to act upon the problem and critics have now argued that they are tackling the problem in a completely wrong way.
Any test that is implemented needs to be carefully crafted and marketed if it is not in fact aimed to be a bar to entry. The office of fair trading has stated that the test would be restrictive and anti competitive due to the amount of people coming through the bar course.
Along with the potential to reduce the amount of potential courses and raise the cost for those that do not get past the test the Office of Fair Trading has suggested that it could also eventually lead to a smaller group of potential lawyers and barristers- putting pressure on the industry.
The test is still only being piloted by the bar and it will not be implemented until next year's course.
This latest development in the legal career world has resulted in bigger questions being raised once more. The test does possibly signal the beginning of more varied qualifications and routes into a legal career.
A law career is still a very popular route which students look to each year. Studying to become a lawyer takes many years and vocational training places are often scarce. Increasing numbers of people are beginning to see a career in law as a battle against them and therefore deciding to use their law degree in a different way.
