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Your age is not an issue here at all - average age of a trainee is 28, and if you said vacation scheme students are recruited three years in advance, that puts you right at the average.

And that is actually your biggest challenge. Firms typically recruit trainees 2-3 years in advance, and use their vacation schemes as a pipeline of talent for training contracts. The 2-3 years is done because historically this time was needed for undergraduate students to complete their degrees and then start law school before starting their TC. You don’t need to study, and so you have 2-3 years where you can work. In that 2-3 years, especially given you could sit the SQE and become a qualified lawyer in that time, you couldn’t need to do a training contract. And because of that, firms are less likely to offer you a vacation scheme spot, because they will want to save it for those who can do a TC.