BRIEFS: Clearing call

Only half the students who passed the first Bar vocational course begun in 1989 had found tenancies two years later, according to a report just published by the Institute for the Study of the Legal Profession at the University of Sheffield. It al so suggests that the pupillage system needs to be overhauled and that a clearing house system should be set up to help new barristers looking for tenancies.

The report, commissioned by the Council of Legal Education to monitor the success of the course, followed the progress of students during and after their studies.

However, it concludes that skills training is the right approach and that the course offers a good balance of skills and knowledge teaching.

"What is remarkable is the extent to which the barristers we interviewed said they had profited from the CLE course," the report says. "Even more remarkable is that barristers appear to have used their work on the course to compensate for any deficiencies in further training in pupillage."