Students in my Introduction to Common Law class know that a step in becoming a barrister is securing a pupilage, the practical training step at the end of the long road to becoming a barrister. In class I have stressed how difficult it is to secure such practical training, and a recent study has shown just how difficult it really is. The English law website
Legal Cheek notes:
The statistics, published today by the Bar Standards Board (BSB), show that 35% of all UK/EU domiciled grads that started the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) in the academic years commencing in 2011-2013 have gone on to gain pupillage.
The article goes on to discuss how diverse the Bar is becoming:
On the diversity front, the report shows that the number of women progressing to a career at the bar is similar to men; 47% of pupillages were awarded to women. It must be borne in mind that more women are enrolling on the BPTC in the first place, which may suggest that men have a greater chance of success. It’s also speculated that white aspiring barristers are more successful in finding pupillages than black ethnic minority (BME) candidates, but “more research is needed to determine whether and, if so, why this may be the case”.
