Has anyone studied law recently?

I'm hesitant to offer much more advice, as I have no idea what those certificates offer or what they can be used for.

I can only offer advice based on my experience in taking law as a degree.
 
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A-Level Qualifications

For more confident students, CILEx offers the Level 3 Certificate in Law and Legal Practice. This provides a short but rounded qualification in Law and Legal Practice. This is a modular course so you can choose from a variety of areas of the law which interest you. You need to complete 5 topics. After that, you may wish to go on to study the first stage of becoming a Chartered Legal Executive lawyer with the Level 3 Professional Diploma in Law and Practice.
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looking at that it looks like its a A Level equivialnt?
 
Wouldn't worry about people calling the 'career' boring. Newsflash: all professions involve more than their fair share of tedium, boredom and trivial tasks. It just depends to what end you're doing them, really. If it interests you then that's at least better than the myriad other corporate jobs that don't interest you, and still involve the same tedium... right?
 
I have been having similar thoughts, feeling i have not made the best of my education in my youth and considering starting again, partly for my own sense of achievement and to also open up better career options.

Just wanted to say i think you are doing the right thing in how you are approaching this decision as studying alongside working will be demanding and finding a subject you are interested in and enjoy will pull you through, also having a goal afterwards, like a career to aim for after the qualifications would be a big help IMO.

i'm currently stuck weighing up the decision of which subject would suit my interests and trying to gauge my level of motivation before deciding whether to commit.

I wish you the best of luck.
 
HardwareGeek said:
I have been having similar thoughts, feeling i have not made the best of my education in my youth and considering starting again, partly for my own sense of achievement and to also open up better career options.

Just wanted to say i think you are doing the right thing in how you are approaching this decision as studying alongside working will be demanding and finding a subject you are interested in and enjoy will pull you through, also having a goal afterwards, like a career to aim for after the qualifications would be a big help IMO.

i'm currently stuck weighing up the decision of which subject would suit my interests and trying to gauge my level of motivation before deciding whether to commit.

I wish you the best of luck.
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thanks, is appreciated.

i know how you feel, i have my doubts on my motivation levels. i am fotunate that as my auntie is a law lecturer, she has been able to set me some tasks for me to try and see if im at a level ready to do a course alongside work, and i seem to of being doing ok :)
the subject seems to be the hardest thing for me to. i like law, it interests me and the stuff i have been working through has been fun (well not sure fun is the right word, but you know what i mean). accountancy was another option for me too. dunno why, but i like doing stuff like spreadsheets and that. problem solving seems to be what i enjoy most, so maybe law isnt really the best suited to that, but i still for some reason get drawn to it everytime i think of something else i want to do.
 
I was looking at OU courses and the main thing causing me to doubt my level of motivation were the quoted time-scales, like you i would be looking to complete the courses much faster if possible.

I know myself from past experience and more recently re-training for work the last few months that i can plow through the material faster that anyone i know, but still the time-scale seems long.

Law wise i'm not an expert but i did take law A level at college and found it very interesting, but translating that into a career, i would not know where to start.

Confidence wise, i guess that the spectrum of jobs within legal services must be pretty wide, so i would not be confident enough to be a barrister for example, but a local general solicitor, dealing with wills, estates, small scale things would probably be fine for example.
 
HardwareGeek said:
I was looking at OU courses and the main thing causing me to doubt my level of motivation were the quoted time-scales, like you i would be looking to complete the courses much faster if possible.

I know myself from past experience and more recently re-training for work the last few months that i can plow through the material faster that anyone i know, but still the time-scale seems long.

Law wise i'm not an expert but i did take law A level at college and found it very interesting, but translating that into a career, i would not know where to start.

Confidence wise, i guess that the spectrum of jobs within legal services must be pretty wide, so i would not be confident enough to be a barrister for example, but a local general solicitor, dealing with wills, estates, small scale things would probably be fine for example.
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with OU i believe you are limited to the amount of units they will let you do in a year, so you need to take the time they set. with the ILEX law course thing, as far as i know you do the modules as and when you want, and sit the exams in either jan or june depending on when you think you are ready.
there seem to be a fair few fasttrack OU courses which might be worth looking at.
 
paradisiac said:
so the general consensus in here is that studying law if worthwhile, but a job in it can be dull, repetative and hard to get?
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I think to be more accurate, debating points of law is interesting and rewarding, but the administrative side of it can be tedious, just as for any job.

Law is not immediately rewarding to study, unlike something you can see and appreciate in front of you, such as biology or art. In this way, it's a bit like the 'mmorpg' of subjects. You have to invest a lot of time and energy (grinding) before it can become particularly interesting.

I only have experience of trying to go for 'relatively' top end solicitor roles. It can be totally soul destroying but ultimately I know many competent people who get one in the end with hard effort and resilience to crushing rejection after rejection. There is always a bigger fish than you at those assessment centres. Conversations would always go like this:

Partner: Tell the group about something exciting you once did.
Me: Well, this one time I went on a conservation project in Hawaii.
Other candidate: Pffft noob, I've been to the moon.

Going down that route is arguably financial suicide without a scholarship of some sort, particularly if you are interested in being a barrister (which you have said you aren't). Also, I'm pretty sure that without considerable experience you cannot be a legal executive or a para-legal without an LPC.
 
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Nitefly said:
I think to be more accurate, debating points of law is interesting and rewarding, but the administrative side of it can be tedious, just as for any job.

Law is not immediately rewarding to study, unlike something you can see and appreciate in front of you, such as biology or art. In this way, it's a bit like the 'mmorpg' of subjects. You have to invest a lot of time and energy (grinding) before it can become particularly interesting.

I only have experience of trying to go for 'relatively' top end solicitor roles. It can be totally soul destroying but ultimately I know many competent people who get one in the end with hard effort and resilience to crushing rejection after rejection. Going down that route is arguably financial suicide without a scholarship of some sort, particularly if you are interested in being a barrister (which you have said you aren't). Also, I'm pretty sure that without considerable experience you cannot be a legal executive or a para-legal without an LPC.
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yeh i know its not going to be a quick and easy road of doing 5 modules, sitting 3 exams and walking into a top paid job (or any job for that matter). they estimate 5-7 years (not sure if that sounds the norm) before you would be qualified enough to think about getting a decent job. but having the ground qualification is a start (well i hope anyway). the £1400 is a bit of an expense unfortunatly, but you dont get owt for free.
yeh, obvs doing my A+ (which i know isnt a great qualification) meant that you could see your achievments as you did the course (when i did it it was 1 day practicle 1 day theory). i understand with law 90% of my spare time will be with my head in a book or researching cases, but i find that kinda interesting (i cant read story books, but research interests me). and the way i see it, even if i dont decide to use law as a vocation, its also good be educated in it, so you know your rights and have a bit of an advantage is certain situations.
 
I'm not really sure about going into law through any other way than as a graduate or as an admin with several years of experience (legal executive).

The best person on here to speak about what day to day life is in that sort of role is Raymond Lin, because he actually does it.
 
InKursion said:
Wouldn't worry about people calling the 'career' boring. Newsflash: all professions involve more than their fair share of tedium, boredom and trivial tasks. It just depends to what end you're doing them, really. If it interests you then that's at least better than the myriad other corporate jobs that don't interest you, and still involve the same tedium... right?
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this is my thought. im currently doing a rubbish paid job, that is mind numbingly dull and with people i cant stand. but i cant say so far any of my jobs havent had something i havent like, its just my current one seems to have everything i dont like lol.
 
Nitefly said:
I'm not really sure about going into law through any other way than as a graduate or as an admin with several years of experience (legal executive).

The best person on here to speak about what day to day life is in that sort of role is Raymond Lin, because he actually does it.
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ok from a bit of reading it looks like level 3 is a diploma, level 6 is a higher diploma. but i have no idea what that means :o

this is from their prospectus

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paradisiac said:
thanks for your input. this has been in the back of my head too. will i spend the next couple of years or so studying and still being no further forward.
the thing is, i do the same tedious stuff day in day out with my job now, with no gains whatsoever.
this is why i thought doing the introductory course in both law and accountancy might be the best start, get a feeling for both.
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Like I say I don't want to put you off but just think that if you can actually get some experience before committing then that might prevent you investing yourself too much in it if you wouldn't like law. It sounds like a very good idea to do some assignments for your aunty and see how that goes. Your age should be no impediment - if it's something that you genuinely want to do then I wouldn't worry in the least about being a bit older than many starting. Let's face it, barring any unforeseen circumstances you'll have at least 30+ years working still to go.

For what it's worth I'm now training to be an accountant and I'm enjoying it or rather I should say I'm enjoying the job much more than the studying. However the studies are one of those hoops that require jumped through to become chartered.

Nitefly said:
Going down that route is arguably financial suicide without a scholarship of some sort, particularly if you are interested in being a barrister (which you have said you aren't). Also, I'm pretty sure that without considerable experience you cannot be a legal executive or a para-legal without an LPC.
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It's a minor point but you can get paralegal certificates without actually doing the job. I was technically a paralegal before I even started my law degree - not for any other reason than the company I was working for offered the course. I can't remember what I'm a paralegal in though and I'd never say it actually meant I knew what I was doing.
 
Yep I'm aware of that too, whether that would qualify you for the sort of paralegal role I'm thinking of is a slightly different issue :p
 
semi-pro waster said:
For what it's worth I'm now training to be an accountant and I'm enjoying it or rather I should say I'm enjoying the job much more than the studying. However the studies are one of those hoops that require jumped through to become chartered.
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like i said before, accountancy does also seem like something i would like.
i did business GNVQ and found that pretty enjoyable. i also did IT GNVQ and my A+ which i hated, but had drummed into me computers were where the money was. dont get me wrong, i love pc building on my own stuff, just my heart isnt in it anymore as a profession. maybe working for a company like ocuk would change that, but doing it the way i do is just mind numbing.
 
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