//Education and Training

BACFI supports the efforts being made by the Bar Standards Board and the Bar Council to increase training opportunities for the Bar. It is currently engaged in discussions with the Bar Standards Board on the rules relating to Employed Pupillages which still remain difficult to arrange.

The serious mismatch between numbers of BVC graduates and pupillage opportunities is of great concern for the future of the Bar and BACFI will press for solutions to this issue. Following the Tuckey and Richards reports on non- practising barristers (BACFI was represented on both working groups), BACFI hopes to work with the Bar Standards Board to look at opportunities for more flexible training regimes to give more barristers the chance to obtain a practising certificate.  The Professional Issues Sub-committee is currently working on a detailed submission to the Pupillage Review Working Group which is examining the structure and content of pupillage for the future.

BACFI membership is open to students for the Bar. Members are available to give careers guidance. In addition members of the Committee give regular talks on practice at the employed bar to students at the Inns of Court and the BVC training establishments.

Advocacy Training

BACFI members Christiane Valansot and Julian Burling led the private sector component of Middle Temple's New Practitioners' Programme Advocacy Training.  This course was devised to give employed barristers an opportunity to practice written and oral advocacy skills relevant their public and private occupational disciplines.

BACFI welcomes the opportunity to circulate details of members’ in-house training to other BACFI members in the same sector. Please contact the Secretary if you are interested.

CPD

The rules on which courses qualify for CPD are complicated and can be found on the Bar Standards Board website under the Continuing Professional Development section at www.barstandardsboard.org.uk.

Seminars

BACFI evening seminars are designed to cover subjects which are of interest to members and all carry at least one hour of CPD points. The Events Committee welcomes suggestions from members for subjects for future events. Please contact events@bacfi.org.

CPD Training Courses

We are often sent details of CPD training courses offered by others. Whilst we cannot warrant their value for money, we will add links here to the ones we consider might be of interest to members:

Risk Management Executive Education Program (PRMIA/UCL) -- "A Complete Course in Risk Management: London" -- 14-18 June 2010.