My Academics

[AK105]

Hello Everyone,

Apologies for my repetitive posts but I have finally graduated from a university in Scotland with a mid to high 2:1.

I got the English equivalent of 66%.

I got BBC at A Level, and a 2:2 in first year.

I secured a vacation scheme that I will not be undertaking within the Scottish office of an international law firm, that I won’t be undertaking because I got offered a training contract in the Scottish office of another international law firm.

I’m extremely worried that I won’t get accepted onto the Diploma in Legal Practice in Scotland, because entry on the Diploma is based on first and second year results, which I did not do well in. In such cases my training contract offer will be rescinded. I will be finding out whether I get into the Diploma on the 7th July.

I feel that Scottish offices are much less competitive than English ones. Therefore, I need back-up options in case it doesn’t work out. Please can I have some advice on my prospects of getting a TC in England, and other back up options if law doesn’t work out.

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hello Everyone,

Apologies for my repetitive posts but I have finally graduated from a university in Scotland with a mid to high 2:1.

I got the English equivalent of 66%.

I got BBC at A Level, and a 2:2 in first year.

I secured a vacation scheme that I will not be undertaking within the Scottish office of an international law firm, that I won’t be undertaking because I got offered a training contract in the Scottish office of another international law firm.

I’m extremely worried that I won’t get accepted onto the Diploma in Legal Practice in Scotland, because entry on the Diploma is based on first and second year results, which I did not do well in. In such cases my training contract offer will be rescinded. I will be finding out whether I get into the Diploma on the 7th July.

I feel that Scottish offices are much less competitive than English ones. Therefore, I need back-up options in case it doesn’t work out. Please can I have some advice on my prospects of getting a TC in England, and other back up options if law doesn’t work out.

do you only want to work in Scotland?

 

[AK105]

do you only want to work in Scotland?

I really don’t mind. I will go anywhere where I am offered a job to be honest.

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

I think there would be a whole range of other options whether outside of Scotland or within it. But I wouldn’t worry about that until the 7th July - and even then, I am assuming you could reapply for the Diploma in Legal Practice?

If you submitted details to say you had a training contract as part of your application, I suspect that will completely outweigh your first and second year grades anyway.

 

[AK105]

I think there would be a whole range of other options whether outside of Scotland or within it. But I wouldn’t worry about that until the 7th July - and even then, I am assuming you could reapply for the Diploma in Legal Practice?

If you submitted details to say you had a training contract as part of your application, I suspect that will completely outweigh your first and second year grades anyway.

Hi Jessica, thanks so much for your response. You are correct in that it is the diploma provider’s discretion to consider traineeship offers. My own competition law professor is the diploma provider at my university, and he said the primary entry to the diploma in legal practice is the core modules across first and second year. Moreover, I called up the law society of Scotland, and a man literally said that there have been cases where people’s training contract offers have been rescinded for not being able to secure a diploma place.

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hi Jessica, thanks so much for your response. You are correct in that it is the diploma provider’s discretion to consider traineeship offers. My own competition law professor is the diploma provider at my university, and he said the primary entry to the diploma in legal practice is the core modules across first and second year. Moreover, I called up the law society of Scotland, and a man literally said that there have been cases where people’s training contract offers have been rescinded for not being able to secure a diploma place.

I can understand that to some extent (there is probably a correlation between these academic results and performance in the course) but that is crazy that they place ao much weighting on your grades (especially first year).

I suspect you will be fine so I would try not to worry about this. Wait another four weeks and then if you need to revisit our career opportunities you should. But I think investing a lot of time/energy into that now isn’t necessary.

If for any reason you didn’t get onto the course, there would be a whole load of opportunities in the rest of the U.K. for you - there is no reason why you couldn’t go forward for a English TC with a whole range of firms.

If you wanted to stay in Scotland, you could always look at alternative careers in areas like compliance or risk - especially within any of the financial services sector in Scotland. Your law degree would be of interest to many different roles/opportunities in that sector anyway.

 

[AK105]

I can understand that to some extent (there is probably a correlation between these academic results and performance in the course) but that is crazy that they place ao much weighting on your grades (especially first year).

I suspect you will be fine so I would try not to worry about this. Wait another four weeks and then if you need to revisit our career opportunities you should. But I think investing a lot of time/energy into that now isn’t necessary.

If for any reason you didn’t get onto the course, there would be a whole load of opportunities in the rest of the U.K. for you - there is no reason why you couldn’t go forward for a English TC with a whole range of firms.

If you wanted to stay in Scotland, you could always look at alternative careers in areas like compliance or risk - especially within any of the financial services sector in Scotland. Your law degree would be of interest to many different roles/opportunities in that sector anyway.

Thank you so much Jessica for providing hope. Given my subpar academics, and the level of uncertainty, everything seems very confusing right now. Especially since, there are 1852 applications for Diploma positions and only 700 spots.

Therefore, I am happy there are other possibilities. In the meantime would you recommend trying to get a part time job in retail or hospitality? I am feeling very strange sitting at home unemployed after uni, with nothing much to do other than worry.

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Thank you so much Jessica for providing hope. Given my subpar academics, and the level of uncertainty, everything seems very confusing right now. Especially since, there are 1852 applications for Diploma positions and only 700 spots.

Therefore, I am happy there are other possibilities. In the meantime would you recommend trying to get a part time job in retail or hospitality? I am feeling very strange sitting at home unemployed after uni, with nothing much to do other than worry.

Any work experience will be good in terms of building your skill set and obviously earning some money in the interim. You may also want to look for temp roles in commercial organisations too.

 

[AK105]

Any work experience will be good in terms of building your skill set and obviously earning some money in the interim. You may also want to look for temp roles in commercial organisations too.

Thank you so much Jessica!!