There should be an interim professional status for law students who pass the legal practice course (LPC) but do not find, or want to find, training contracts, the College of Law said this week.

In its response to a consultation on the Law Society's training framework review, the college said the period after the LPC should be divided into two parts: the first would lead to an interim qualification and be based on a work placement; the second would be a longer, more rigorous programme leading to qualification as a solicitor.

It said the requirement to secure and complete a training contract before qualification may have an adverse impact on widening access to the legal profession, while there are areas of practice - such as housing, personal injury, document processing and remortgage work - where 'the individuals concerned may not need the full range of knowledge, skills and professional status that fully qualified solicitors are required to possess'.

The review has proposed a training regime that concentrates on outcomes.

The Law Society would prescribe the skills and knowledge aspiring solicitors must have, and create a new system to check they have been achieved before admitting them to the roll.

At the heart of the concept is an opportunity for different pathways to qualification to develop and it questions whether the training contract should remain an essential element of the process.

The college said it supported the thrust of the proposals but cast doubt on whether the review's aspiration to have greater integration of the academic, vocational and work-based stages of qualification would happen.

'The current model of legal education...

has become deeply embedded and institutionalised,' it said.