Irwin Mitchell leads the way on non-legal staff training

Sheffield-based Irwin Mitchell has become the first major law firm to offer in-house legal executive training to secretarial and paralegal staff.The training from the Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) will be offered in all areas of the firm's practice, both commercial and non-commercial.The scheme has begun in its Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham offices and will be extended to London next year.

More than 50 staff have already enrolled and the firm predicted that more would follow.

Lecturers from Sutton Coldfield College are providing the training.Sue Lenkowski, Irwin's training and development manager, said the move reflected a shift towards all personnel having equal access to academic and non-academic training and development opportunities.The firm has also introduced a legal modern apprenticeship, which gives staff basic skills, with the option of moving on to the ILEX programme.

Staff taking this training can gain an NVQ as well as a legal secretarial diploma or paralegal certificate.

So far, 40 junior staff have enrolled.Training and Enterprise Councils in Sheffield and in Birmingham and Solihull are sponsoring both schemes.Neil Rose