Local MP and CILEx support Professions Week

21 October 2013

Bedford and Kempston MP Richard Fuller visited the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) in Kempston on Friday, 18 October to talk to Bedford Free School pupils about forging a career as a legal professional as part of the UK’s first Professions Week.

The school pupils, who were keen to learn more about a career in law, visited CILEx to hear about how they could earn as they learn to become a lawyer.

CILEx is one of the 15 founding bodies of the first Professions Week which takes place this week (21 to 27 October). The initiative aims to increase awareness of the different professions amongst 14 to 19-year-olds.

CILEx is unique in that it trains people to become qualified lawyers without them needing a university degree. The CILEx careers team will be visiting Bedford Free School and Hastingsbury Business and Enterprise College during Professions Week to talk to pupils about a career in law.

Richard Fuller MP said: “It is fantastic that an institution like CILEx is in my constituency. It is so well-connected and it is excellent that it is here to help people understand what their options are. CILEx’s involvement in Professions Week means that young people have the opportunity to learn about a career as a professional; they have such a competitive future ahead of them full of tremendous opportunities and it is wonderful that CILEx will be visiting Hastingsbury Business and Enterprise College and Bedford Free School to promote their alternative routes into law.”

Oliver Chesters-Lewis, a year 10 pupil at Bedford Free School said: “Visiting CILEx has really opened my eyes to the different ways you can become a lawyer and I now know that I want to become a criminal lawyer. I also know that I could become a legal apprentice after I leave school or study with CILEx part time while I am working at a law firm and still become a qualified lawyer instead of going to university.”

The CILEx group employs 130 staff with the majority based at the headquarters in Kempston. The company trains apprentices and is also part of the Get Britain Working scheme. Kathryn Jack and Josh Mason, two CILEx employees who have completed their Business and Administration apprenticeships, gave the pupils an insight about how earning whilst learning as an apprentice was the best option for them after they left school.

To find out more about events CILEx will be running during Professions Week click here.

To find out more about Professions Week visit www.professionsweek.org.

Photo, from left to right: Kathryn Jack, Customer Advisor at CILEx Law School; Josh Mason, Membership Advisor at CILEx; Gagenpreet Atwal and Oliver Chesters-Lewis, year 10 pupils at Bedford Free School; Richard Fuller MP for Bedford and Kempston; Rhianna Walkden and Jay Bhagran, year 10 pupils at Bedford Free School; Jennifer Egginton, Regional Development Officer at CILEx.