With Social Mobility Day 2025 on 12 June and the House of Lords Social Mobility Policy Committee continuing to meet, solicitor apprenticeships as a social mobility tool remain topical following the recent government announcement about funding for solicitor apprenticeships.
The government has refocused investment towards young people. The changes to level 7 funding from the Department for Education include:
- level 7 apprenticeships will continue to be government-funded for young people aged 16-21, and under-25 for care leavers and those with an education, health and care plan at the start of their apprenticeship in England; and
- any apprentice who started a level 7 apprenticeship before 1 January 2026 will continue to be funded through to completion.
What matters is the age when they start their apprenticeship.
Reaction from the City of London Law Society and City Century
The government decision follows sustained advocacy from City Century, the City of London Law Society, the Law Society of England and Wales, the Solicitor Trailblazer Group, individual law firms, solicitor apprentices and many others to retain levy funding for solicitor apprenticeships.
Data shows level 7 solicitor apprenticeships in City Century firms (a collaboration of more than 50 City of London law firms) are undertaken almost exclusively by school-leavers, thereby meeting the government’s ambitions for apprenticeships by boosting opportunities for young people. The age-based exemption was therefore welcomed by City Century.
However, the Law Society and others have called for the age limit to be extended to make opportunities as accessible as possible.
City Century and the City of London Law Society see the government’s decision as a significant moment for young people, the legal profession and the UK’s social mobility mission. This carve-out is not just a technical exemption; it’s a vote of confidence in every young solicitor apprentice working their way into the profession.
City Century is grateful that the government has listened to the evidence, seen the impact and acted. We would welcome the removal of the age restriction to enable greater access to the profession.
What about socio-economic diversity?
Data published last October by the Solicitors Regulation Authority shows that when compared with the overall SQE candidate cohort, a higher proportion of apprentices come from working-class backgrounds and attended state school.
When it comes to solicitor apprentices working at City Century law firms, a survey of 213 solicitor apprentices across all six years of their apprenticeships carried out by the Bridge Group at the end of 2024 showed that current cohorts of solicitor apprentice respondents are more diverse than the wider solicitor population in terms of both socio-economic background and ethnic background.
Benefits for firms and other employers
The theme of Social Mobility Day 2025 is #ShiftMindsets. The idea behind this is to shift mindsets away from ‘social mobility’ being a buzz term, to being seen as a business advantage. According to the Opportunity Effect report by Demos and the Co-Op (2024), greater social mobility could increase UK business profits by £1.8bn a year.
The latest SRA data shows that, within the overall SQE intake, solicitor apprentices continue to outperform the general SQE student standard.
The ‘lucky few’?
While solicitor apprenticeship roles in City Century law firms are currently in the hundreds not thousands, we do not believe that solicitor apprentices are a case of the ‘lucky few’ (to use a phrase of the moment among social mobility experts). Unlike scholarships for individuals to go to full-time university, solicitor apprenticeships are about structural change.
What next?
With over 50% of young people not attending full-time university, developing a stronger evidence base about the social mobility effect of solicitor apprenticeships must be a priority.
Thanks to the work of the Bridge Group, City Century law firms have granular data on entry to the legal profession as solicitor apprentices. The obvious next step is to look at final outcomes of the City Century solicitor apprentices surveyed, and to track future solicitors’ journey to partnership.
Joanna Hughes and Patrick McCann are co-CEOs of City Century. Colin Passmore is chair of the City of London Law Society
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