Chris Wilkinson and Patrick Gallimore, York Law School

Abstract | Presentation | Recording

What do our undergraduates do with degrees? In this workshop Chris Wilkinson and Patrick Gallimore explored the relevance of a law degree to wider education and employment.

The majority of students who embark on a law degree do so with the ambition of gaining employment in the legal sector. However, only about 50% of graduates pursue a career in law, with the other 50% choosing to look outside the legal sector. With this in mind how meaningful is a law degree to other professions and disciplines?

At York Law School they have introduced a Careers and Development Programme, which provides students with the opportunity to attend link days and employer events, as well as being involved in mentoring schemes and attending careers presentations and workshops. The Careers and Development Programme has been designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills that students need to make informed decisions about their future work, and the opportunities available to them. The programme aims to balance its appeal to both the students who would like work within the legal profession and those who want to work outside of it.    

Employability skills are also embedded in the core curriculum through the problem based learning that the students are engaged in and the legal skills modules. Students engage in collaborative learning through the student law firms to work on the weekly problems, which are linked to skills simulations which involve a collection of transactions taking place over a couple of weeks, for example a client interview, case evaluation, draft letter. The simulations provide students with the opportunity to apply legal theory and knowledge, through experience of different scenarios.

The presentation ended with a lively discussion about changes to the legal education and how other departments have approach employability.