BPP offers free courses for LPC graduates who fail to find jobs

BPP graduates could study for free if they fail to find a job six months after successfully passing the LPC course, it was announced today.

If an LPC graduate fails to find any type of job in the legal sector they will be entitled to return and study an additional qualification worth up to £16,500.

Free qualifications graduates can undertake include any MSc degree at the BPP Business School, an LLM degree or the New York Bar course.

It includes qualifications outside the law, such as the ACCA and CIMA accountancy courses. Students can also study for a chartered tax adviser or financial analyst qualification.

Peter Crisp, dean and chief executive of BPP's Law School said: "This is a unique offer and reflects our confidence in the employability of our LPC graduates."

The offer, said Crisp, builds on the changes BPP has made to its LPC. From September this year it will be awarded as an MA, referred to as 'LPC with Business'. The MA is accredited by the SRA.

Crisp said that feedback the school had received from law firms indicated a need for business and commercial awareness previously missing from the LPC.

"The LPC alone is not enough today. BPP is the only law school which offers taught business modules allowing students to demonstrate commercial awareness and graduate with a Masters in Business as well as their LPC," said Crisp.

A spokeswoman for BPP added that the offer "covers any work in a solicitor's practice or other organisation where the function is a legal one" and, to be eligible, students must have applied "for a variety of legal roles."

The offer applies to all students starting the LLB, GDL or LPC with BPP in September 2013 at BPP's law schools in London, Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Cambridge, Bristol and Liverpool.The offer does not extend to Bar Professional Training Course graduates in a similar position.