Flex Trainee - a new way to grow diverse talent

Flex Trainees sit across an office sofa, smiling at a camera before they commence their secondments

The new SQE route to solicitor qualification is designed to open the legal profession to a wider pool of talent. It represents a significant opportunity for organisations to support the next generation of lawyers, and improve social mobility and diversity in the profession.

Our Flex Trainee programme helps both businesses and aspiring solicitors to make the most of this opportunity. We place trainees in legal teams over the 2 years of their SQE, where they gather valuable qualifying work experience while completing the academic component of their qualification.

What is Flex Trainee?

A roundtable of Flex Trainees listen intently as they learn soft skills

Flex Trainee allows legal teams to confidently access the best and brightest socially mobile aspiring lawyers across a 1-2 year placement. Not only does this allow your team to invest meaningfully in the future of the legal profession, but it offers you a valuable junior resource that enables you to focus on more strategic work, with no obligation for permanent employment at the end of the placement.

Flex Trainee also allows legal teams to avoid the administrative burden of training, mentoring, and supervising unqualified legal talent. All Flex Trainees are supported by Flex Legal mentors in regular 1:1 sessions. We also meet monthly with the each Trainee's in-house supervisor to gather feedback and resolve any issues.

A cohort of 4 Flex Trainees stand before a building, smiling as they begin their solicitor qualification

We also offer you the opportunity to hire newly-qualified lawyers at the end of the Flex Trainee programme - at no additional cost. This gives legal teams the chance to easily improve their workplace diversity, and grow and develop their business.

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How does Flex Trainee work?

Before engagement	During engagement	After engagement
Flex works with leading charities such as STRIVE to identify the best diverse talent.	Trainees are engaged for 1 year minimum. They work for 4.5 days a week, and study for the remaining half-day.	After the first year, the trainee can be retained for a second year to complete their qualification within the in-house team.
Flex employs the trainees for 2 years so that they can be seconded to in-house legal teams.	Trainees use our proprietary SQE tool to easily record QWE.	Alternatively, Flex can replace the trainee with another carefully chosen student.
Flex runs a 4-week readiness programme for the trainees before they join the in-house team.	Flex holds regular 1:1s with trainees to ensure success, review training and QWE.	Regardless, there will be no additional cost to the in-house team.
	Every month, Flex meets with an in- house supervisor to gather feedback and resolve any issues. Monthly QWE reports are also sent to the supervisor.	After two years, the in- house team can offer either trainee a NQ role if they wish (trainees understand this is not guaranteed).
	The trainee is also assigned a Flex mentor and has access to a professional coach; as well as Flex networking events.

Our Trainees