In this year's Spring Budget, Philip Hammond paid tribute to National Apprenticeship Week, stressing that: "the apprenticeship route is now, finally, delivering that ambition with 2.4 million apprenticeship starts in the last Parliament."

Sam Lee, Head of Recruitment, said:

"In his Spring Budget, Philip Hammond paid tribute to apprenticeship programmes with the outstanding figure of 2.4 million apprenticeship starts since the last Parliament. This is tremendous news. In the legal profession we perhaps have a reputation for the traditional, but apprenticeships are helping us change this perception offering new alternative routes into the profession. The widening of access to a career in law through the introduction of apprenticeships has enabled us to drive social mobility and also open up opportunities to those who wanted to start their career sooner rather than later. Hiring apprentices is absolutely the right thing to do in our sector and as a firm we have hugely benefitted from the scheme.

"In addition, the introduction of the apprenticeship levy next month is presenting a great opportunity for us to invest further in our apprenticeship programmes and we're delighted to have had the support of the business to allow us to do just that. The apprenticeship scheme at Bond Dickinson has been a real success and has delivered outstanding results for internal and external clients. Widely recognised as solid investment in the future of the business, we currently employ eleven apprentices, including seven legal apprentices, and we have been able to roll out further apprenticeships across other business functions and locations which now also includes a new solicitor apprenticeship in Newcastle."