BBC Legal Apprentice Review

Legal Apprentice Rotations through various legal departments. Performing administrative tasks and some legal roles. Daily interactions with legal staff, business staff, and creative staff. Daily interactions with external law firms, individual production companies, and cast agents. Responsibility to help assist the teams in any way possible from filing to drafting documents. Have had projects on distribution agreements, talent agreements, negotiating fees, and location agreements.

Developed skills in communication, drafting and organisation. Attending courses on legal matters, such as equal pay, and general training courses to help improve skills in the workplace, such as communication, writing, and people skills. I have learnt a great deal and feel a lot more confident being in a workplace although I am younger than most of the people I work with.

I enjoy my programme quite a lot, but I think the organisation of it could be improved. I understand that I am on a course which is fairly new but decisions by our Law School on what exams we are going to take, when we are going to take them, and how we will be assessed on other topics, could be made simpler and at earlier times. The culture of the BBC is brilliant however and the people are generally lovely and really want to help you in your work life. The BBC has exceeded my expectations, however the Law School has disappointed me some what as explained previously.

I feel very valued by the BBC. They encourage me a lot and present me with opportunities I couldn't necessarily get anywhere else. I would like to stay on with them in order to learn more. I have had the chance to work with a variety of teams with different expertise and it has given me an idea of where I want to take my career. My first supervisor, out of my 4 placements, has kept in touch with me throughout the 2 years and really wants to ensure I am happy and going into something I love after the apprenticeship. I have tried to involve myself as much as possible in any opportunity thrown my way because I wanted to get out as much as I could from my time at the BBC. I think this has helped me to become known to colleagues and other members of staff.

The BBC's organisation appears to have been extremely good, however, as said in answer 3, my Law School has not shown great organisation or structure in the role within the apprenticeship. The support has been there, but it has been a struggle to find at some points because I had to, on many occasions, go through many different people until I got the answer I was looking for due to their lack of communication with each other. Although we receive a days study each week sometimes I believe we cold use more guided learning. The webinars we do receive, if we get any, consist of a teacher just reading from the slides on the screen and not actually teaching us anything. I know that we have to do extra reading, but if you are going to provide a lecturer, then they should at least be teaching rather than reciting what we could be reading alone on our own time. In terms of the BBC the organisation of what placements we are doing, who we should seek guidance from and facilities available to us is excellent.

We receive limited support from our training provider. The main support we receive is from our law school supervisor who will contact us every three months of so to catch up on what we are doing. We had more support from her at the beginning when we were completing our competency units, but that support seems to have diminished some what since then. We receive limited support from anyone at the law school in terms of our exams as explained previously in answer 5. As stated before, I also have had difficulty when trying to get guidance on a problem as it takes about three or four people to come up with an answer and sometimes they all come up with different ones because the communication between them is lacking.

I receive lots of support from my employer. Both my scheme manager and supervisors and have provided well-rounded support for both my work and my studies. I normally have weekly of monthly catch-ups with them and if I ever need to talk to them in general they are there to offer their support. Most of the people I have worked with are very encouraging of the apprenticeship scheme and the work I am doing to support their teams.

My salary has just gone up and is now a lot more satisfactory. Previous to this, in general, I believe that apprentices could be paid slightly more as, like me, many of us are covering our own living and travel costs and, especially in London, a low salary means that you are only paying for those things and it limits you from being able to eat well and have a life in general. The location of the apprenticeship is fine with me and I get to work in such wonderful, buzzing places.

I moved to London when I was 18 knowing no one and working with people who are a lot older, there are limited opportunities to meet people of your own age. I think that those that organise apprenticeships should try and organise more social events so that we can meet other people of our age. There has been one or two, but a few more would be good. I understand that it can sometimes be difficult because people are working in different areas, but I think if people on different apprenticeship schemes could meet, then they could meet others of a similar age with similar situations to their own.

Yes

It is a wonderful, buzzing place to work and everyone is very friendly, welcoming and wants you to do well.

Ensure that you are prepared to work as hard as you can and use a lot of different skills and knowledge. Stay calm and be yourself during the interviews, they will be able to tell if you are both nervous, which is fine, but also if you are lying or pretending to be something you are not. The assessments for our apprenticeship interviews were not legal but more logistical. So don't worry about revising lots of the subject but make sure that you understand about the BBC, what it stands for and what contribution you want to make to it. I would like to have been told that it is a tricky scheme and that you will need to dedicate your life to it but also ensure that you get a good work-life balance as focusing every second of your day on the studying will not help your learning, but most likely hinder it.