Manchester
Activities and events
Extra curricular activities are all about enhancing your experience at The College of Law, Manchester, honing your skills and being better prepared for practice.
It is vital for all lawyers to understand how businesses work and be commercially aware, whatever your intended area of practice. With this in mind, we organise a programme of events and activities to assist you in developing your commercial awareness.
Links with employers
Employer talks and outside speaker programme
Commercial awareness presentations
Mentoring
Mooting and negotiation competitions
Interviewing competitions
Share race competitions
Dedicated commercial awareness and employability skills tutors
Competitions
Charities initiative
Careers workshops
Court vsits
Prize giving
Mock interviews
Current affairs forum
Links with employers
We have an outstanding and ever expanding network of links with local employers and business organisations. We recognise that the better connected we are, the more likely it is that you will achieve your career goals (your hard work aside of course!).
With this in mind, our tutors attend a wide range of networking events within the local legal and business community in Manchester. We are always looking for ways to work with these organisations, for your ultimate benefit.
We host a number of events for the business and legal community, to which our students are often invited.
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Employer talks and outside speaker programme
Organised by our employability tutors, a wide range of leading lawyers from practices visit the College during the year to give presentations. These focus both on key issues affecting lawyers generally and in specific areas of legal practice. This programme enables you to gather key tips on what is going on in the legal marketplace and how to be a part of it.
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Commercial awareness presentations
A series of workshops covering the various dimensions of how to gain genuine and extensive commercial awareness: something every employer wants from you. Workshops are demanding, effective and popular. They are worth attending by any student who wants to know how to get ahead of the competition in the job market.
Our students have found that the programme genuinely helped them in the job hunting and interview process. Here is what some of them have to say:
“I was delighted to be able to get onto the course, especially having received feedback from two interviews the month before I started at the College of Law, both stating that I needed more commercial awareness. Also, I realised I had no idea where to begin when confronted with basic business questions at interview, having had no experiences of businesses and how a business works during my school years or university.
The course gave me knowledge of businesses and how businesses, especially law firms, work. It has been invaluable help and taught me transferrable skills that I have been able to use in interview preparation, as I have been able to apply my knowledge on business development and strategies such as how to bring in and retain clients to a firm I have been applying to.
I strongly recommend the course to anyone struggling to obtain a training contract to enable them to perhaps stand out from other candidates in commercial and business awareness.” (LPC Student)
“… I would like to thank you again for the commercial awareness workshops. I had an interview on Monday … My interview lasted for two hours and they asked about my CV and commercial awareness based questions (especially Legal Services Act, recession). They were impressed with me picking up on their strategy, marketing methods and questions which I asked. I wouldn't be that well prepared if not for you. Thank you!” (LPC Student)
“Vast knowledge put into simple terms.” (GDL Student)
“Varied tasks and what a firm may ask at interview. I feel that it will be very helpful.” (GDL Student)
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Mentoring
The Careers Service organises a popular and successful mentoring scheme for all students. Contact with a mentor who works in the legal profession can help build self-confidence and self-esteem through familiarity with legal practice and can give you an insight into the workings of a firm and how to succeed in your career. We have developed links with mentors from all over the north west and in a wide variety of practice areas and we will match you, where possible, with an appropriate mentor to your career interests.
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Mooting and negotiation competitions
Skills of oral persuasion are central to the role of lawyers. We negotiate in all types of situation, whether it is the fine detail of a contract, or the terms of settlement of a dispute. Mooting is an activity aimed at developing your skills of legal argument in a court room setting. Like any other skill, the more you practise negotiating and mooting, the better you get.
We hold in-house competitions and also assist students wishing to take part in national events.
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Interviewing competitions
The ability to conduct a successful client interview is a vital skill for a lawyer. We organise an internal competition to enable you to hone your interviewing skills.
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Share race competitions
As part of its practice related activity programme, the College runs a Share Race Investment Game, in association with Xentum Wealth Management and investment company, Quilter. The Race provides the opportunity for small teams of students to spend six months managing virtual portfolios of £100,000 by actively trading shares from the FTSE 100. The teams’ performance and investment decisions are scrutinised by a professional investment panel at monthly performance presentations. At the end of the Race, teams provide final presentations and two prizes are awarded; one for the highest valuation and the other for the team which demonstrates the best overall investment process. Last year, the winning teams spent a day at Chester Races, courtesy of the sponsors.
The Race provides a unique opportunity for students to gain a genuine and realistic insight into the financial markets and the factors which influence share values and investment decisions. Last year’s students found it a rewarding and valuable experience which proved useful during the interview and assessment process. Here’s what some of them said:
“Thank you for the presentation last night and the opportunity to take part in the Share Race, it has been brilliant!” (GDL Student)
“Thank you for organising the race. It has helped my commercial awareness so much and at the same time it was really fun.” (GDL Student)
“Thanks for all your hard work on the Share Race, as I said last night, it has been invaluable in filling in application forms, by giving commercial awareness, a group activity and now for some groups, an award! Also the competitive nature in it I think appeals to a lot of people. A day at the races will also be a really great way to finish off the year, and give Alpha and Gamma an opportunity to meet up one last time - it will also give us the opportunity to put our collective gambling prowess to good use!” (GDL Student)
“Thanks again for organising and running the competition. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot which should be very useful when I start my training contract!” (GDL Student)
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Dedicated commercial awareness and employability skills tutors
At the Manchester centre we have commercial awareness tutors and employability tutors who take active steps to forge links between the College, its students, law firms and other employers with one aim in mind: to help you get a job in law.
We also canvass views from students at the end of the academic year via a Former Student Focus Group to learn from our students how we can improve our service to you.
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Charities initiative
We recognise that in order to get ahead you need to stand out from the competition. To help you achieve this each class identifies, creates then project manages its own event, with the proceeds being donated to its nominated charity. Participation helps you demonstrate a range of skills and abilities including team work, organisation and social awareness, all of which are required by employers.
Examples of recent events are:
A 24-hour exercise bike ride for Booths Hall
A pub quiz and games night for the British Red Cross
A Christmas card sale for Christies
A social and gig at Night and Day bar for Campaign Against Living Miserably (C.A.L.M)
A cake sale for Seashells Trust
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Competitions
Hunting for a job in law is competitive, so you need to develop the skills and confidence to enter and win the competition that is the legal job market! We help you do this by running a number of competitions throughout the year (but concentrating in the latter half of the year) on such varied subjects as family law, negotiating, interviewing, mooting, business development, pitching for business, strategies and the legal market place.
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Careers workshops
The Careers Service organises dedicated careers workshops and skills sessions covering a range of career application enhancement skills, to help strengthen your training contract applications and your other career opportunities.
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Court visits
We have strong links with the judicial community in Manchester and will be arranging visits to the various courts in the city including the internationally acclaimed Civil Justice Centre in Spinningfields and the Magistrates’ and Crown Courts. We will also help you to arrange your own visits to other courts that reflect your areas of interest.
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Prize giving
We have an annual prize giving event for the students who achieve the highest marks in each of the courses. The prizes are donated by several firms and other legal organisations and are awarded under a number of categories. The prize giving is attended by tutors, sponsor organisations, students and their guests. This is an enjoyable occasion where everyone can celebrate individual student achievements.
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Mock interviews
It’s vital that you impress your potential new employer at interview and not let nerves get the better of you. With this in mind, if you let us know when you have an interview with a firm coming up, we can arrange a mock interview for you. Our students have found this an invaluable experience which has given them that extra edge in the real interview process.
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Current affairs forum
At almost every job interview you will be asked a question on current affairs. Our current affairs forum has been set up to enable you to consider and debate current affairs as part of your preparation for the job application process and hence to help give you the confidence you need to create the right impression.
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