A new apprenticeship route to legal careers has been approved by the government, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education announced today.

The 'trailblazers in law' initiative allows apprentices to to qualify as solicitors, chartered legal executives or paralegals through workplace-based training.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority welcomed the announcement.

The regulator, along with the Law Society and ILEX Professional Standards Limited (IPS), has worked over the past year with a committee of employers from across the profession to agree the new set of standards which meet the requirements specified by the SRA and IPS for qualification as a solicitor or legal executive.

Paul Philip (pictured), SRA chief executive, said: 'The trailblazers initiative promotes the aims we are pursuing separately in our Training for Tomorrow agenda to enable more flexible routes to qualification as a solicitor, while retaining robust standards.'

For further information on the scheme see this site.