‘Meaningful’ options for law firm trainees who defer
Wednesday, 11th March 2009
According to recent news items, the economic downturn has forced several of the top city law firms to offer anyone due to start training contracts in 2009 and 2010 up to £10,000 to defer their start date.
A condition of the pay-out, though, is that they have to have a ‘meaningful’ and ‘constructive’ project to spend the money on.
Originally cited as possibilities for this kind of activity were; doing a masters degree, completing internships in international offices, or offering ‘pro bono’ legal work.
Doing a volunteering placement, teaching English abroad for year or even learning a foreign language proficiently would no doubt provide good alternatives to a ‘meaningful and constructive project too, though. They would have the added bonus of taking you to far-flung and exotic locations as well!
£10,000 would provide ample funds either to pay for a volunteer placement (in conjunction with a language programme is desired), to do a TEFL training course or do a long-term intensive language course abroad, and possibly still leave you with enough money for any travelling that you want to do either side of your project.
Although more prevalent now given the current economic climate, offering financial incentives to defer the start of training contracts is not a new phenomenon.
Ben Fordham was offered a similar opportunity in 2004, before starting a training contract with Link Laters. He was offered half a year’s salary to defer, and took the opportunity to follow a long-standing desire both to learn Spanish, and build on the existing teaching experience that he had gained doing placements and volunteer work before university.
He undertook a CELTA course in London in October 2003, spent a few months teaching in a language school in Covent Garden to gain some useful experience, and in February 2004 set off for Argentina. Upon his arrival, he visited a number of schools in the city and secured some work teaching English in a secondary school. He also took on some teaching in the evenings. He taught for the duration of the school year (March- December) and then took the opportunity to do some travelling around Argentina and Brazil, before returning to the UK and starting work in March.
He feels that his experience there stood him in really good stead, and privided a very worthwhile way to spend his year out. After spending four years practicing law, he has now followed another long-standing dream of opening up his own Mexican restaurant. Being able to converse proficiently with his many Spanish speaking staff means that his year spent in Argentina teaching and learning Spanish is once again reaping its reward!
Tags: celta, language, tailor-made, italian, german, learning, tefl, french, spanish, english
Posted by Laura Lippert 2009-03 under Teaching Languages, In the news,
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