Thank you to Simon Catterall for writing the blog for me last week while I was away. I really enjoyed reading his thoughts.
This week I have been considering one of the buzz words of the moment; ‘upskilling’. The Oxford English dictionary is updated four times per year with new works and last September added some twelve hundred new words to its pages. Upskilling, though meaning to teach employees additional skills, is first thought to have been used as far back as 1983 but is currently having a resurgence of popularity.
One of the good things about being a lawyer is that you are always learning new things especially as English law is constantly changing with new laws being brought in and new cases decided in the courts. In addition to this we must all learn new skills as we manage our practices with ever changing technological advances.
For us, at Jacksons, I think there are two principal strands to upskilling. First there is the upskilling of our employees which is something we take very seriously. We are a training firm taking a new trainee solicitor every six months and thereby training four at any one time for a two year period. We are also, at present, enjoying training our second apprentice Chloe, who has been with us for a couple of months now and who we are giving opportunities to experience many aspects of office life from reception to archiving, from marketing hospitality to secretarial. Chloe is an important member of our team and it is very satisfying to see her learning the skills she will need in the workplace. At the moment we have also got a graduate with us on an internship programme from the University of Teesside. Jordan will be working with us for three months and is at present working on projects with our private client and marketing teams.
All solicitors and legal executives are required to undergo continuing professional based training every year. The solicitors’ training has this year changed to a competency based assessment from a points system. We pioneered this system twelve months early before it became compulsory and are very pleased with the results. It has enabled us to pinpoint specific training for fee earners both in terms of legal knowledge but also skills such as use of social media, networking and accounts.
The second strand of upskilling for our firm is that we offer training or upskilling to other businesses. By regular seminar both at our office, outside venues and clients workplaces we provide training including CPD accredited training. This can be bespoke to a particular business or more general. Our seminar programme is always detailed in the events section of our website www.jacksons-law.com/events. Don’t forget to look at the website of Jacksons Health and Safety www.jacksons-hs.com where another raft of courses and training are available.
We appreciate from our own experience that finding time for training in amongst all the other demands of a busy working and family life can be difficult. We have therefore launched this month a new series of training seminars lasting just one hour at lunchtime called ‘Packed Lunch Seminar’ series. With these seminars you get, not only an hours CPD training, but also a packed lunch which you can eat while the seminar takes place or can take away with you afterwards. There are six seminars in the current series and we are holding one a month in both our Stockton on Tees and Newcastle offices. Following the announcement of these seminars last week demand has been extremely high and as places are limited, you should book quickly through our website if you would like to join in. If anyone would like this series of seminars delivered at their workplace or business centre, then provided you can find around 12 people to attend, we will be happy to oblige. Contact krobinson@jacksons-law.com for more information.
Having considered our role in the upskilling challenge, next week my colleague Charlotte Alexander will be talking about the other buzz word of the moment ‘Upscaling’ and how Jacksons can help your business achieve this too.
