Three medium-sized London firms have joined forces to offer their own tailored professional skills course (PSC) for trainees.

Forsters, Bircham Dyson Bell and Boodle Hatfield have signed a deal with training company Fresh Professional Development to provide the three compulsory elements of the PSC.


The bespoke course - which will cover financial and business skills, advocacy and communication, and client care - will include case studies relevant to the firms' trainees. The costs will be split between the firms according to how many trainees each sends on the course.


Catherine Kent, head of training at Forsters who initially approached the other firms with the idea of a consortium, said: '[Many graduates assume] that the larger firms automatically have the edge thanks to the resources they have at their disposal. A consortium such as ours disproves this notion.'


Sophie Anagnostopoulos, learning and development manager at Bircham Dyson Bell, added: 'We would consider expanding this to the non-elective elements of the PSC, and running other courses as a consortium, for example a course on how firms' finances work.'