Careers and Employability
The School of Law and Criminal Justice is committed to enhancing your employability, providing you with real-world experiences and helping you to find the right career path for you.
Career development opportunities are embedded into your programmes and offered through extracurricular activities. Our practice-focused modules are designed to provide you with an immersive learning experience and are taught by leading experts or practitioners, allowing you to develop your theoretical knowledge and practical skills through simulations of real-world scenarios.
We also offer a wide range of extracurricular activities to enhance your skills and provide you with real life experience. This may include: work placements, insight days, site visits, field trips, bespoke careers fairs, alumni panels, external speakers and masterclasses, and commercial awareness programmes. You will also be able to participate in numerous employer-led workshops and internal or external competitions such as the Jessup International Law Moot, CEDR National Student Negotiation Competition and the international Sports Arbitration Moot.
These opportunities allow you to network with employers, gain real-world experience and develop your graduate attributes – the skills needed for employment. As an Edge Hill student you will also have access to our excellent University Careers Team which offers career guidance, support with CV and application writing and help searching for part-time work or graduate roles.
The School also has close links with employers and organisations across the legal and criminal justice sectors and beyond, including leading national and international law firms and barristers’ chambers, North West police forces, HM Prison and Probation Service, HM Courts and Tribunal Service and third sector organisations. Our links are also strengthened by our Professional Advisory Panels which meet biannually to advise on the development of our programmes and extracurricular activities.
We are extremely successful in getting you into high-level and rewarding careers from the moment you graduate. Our alumni (former students) frequently return for our annual Alumni Panels to share their experiences and networks through their positions as: Senior Crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), barrister at 4 King’s Bench Walk Chambers, in-house solicitor at BAE Systems and Legal Director at Moderna. Our alumni have also secured roles in various police forces (e.g. Merseyside, GMP, Cheshire, Lancashire, North Wales, Isle of Man, Staffordshire, Northumbria, Sussex), the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, the National Crime Agency and the Home Office.
Joining our School therefore means that you are supported not just with your academic studies but with your career journey too.
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Gaining work experience during your time at university is crucial to ensuring that you gain real-world experience, stand out to employers and build transferable skills.
All our undergraduate programmes provide you with the opportunity to select a work placement module whereby you can undertake work experience (either in industry or with a voluntary organisation) and complete a reflective report to gain credits for your degree programme.
You can also complete a placement, work experience, internship or volunteering alongside your academic studies. Our University’s Careers Portal advertises vacancies throughout the year and the Careers Team’s Employability Advisers are also on hand to support you with finding and applying for opportunities. The University also hosts an annual Careers Fair in the first semester, with the School holding a bespoke Careers Fair in the second semester for Law, Policing and Criminal Justice students, providing you with opportunities to network and gain work experience.
Studying abroad provides an exciting opportunity to experience a new country and culture, forge new friendships, and gain an invaluable experience which will broaden your horizons and boost your employability.
In the School of Law and Criminal Justice, our undergraduate programmes offer a study abroad option meaning that you can apply to study abroad for a year after the second year of your programme. Following this, you would return to Ormskirk to complete the final year of your degree programme.
If you are interested in studying abroad, you should start seeking advice and applying for opportunities from around 12 months in advance. Get in touch with the Study Abroad Team or your School Study Abroad contact, Dr Andrea Cattaneo.
Discover more about studying abroadThrough our extensive networks we regularly arrange for students to attend insight days or site visits at various employers, including law firms (e.g. Brabners, Fletchers) or police force headquarters (e.g. Merseyside, Cumbria).
Insight days and site visits provide you with an opportunity to experience what it is like to work in your desired profession and give you an understanding of the environment in a particular workplace.
An insight day or site visit may include presentations about the company or workplace and their sector, workshops on different themes, opportunities to network with staff and question & answer sessions.
Our bespoke School Careers Fair (Semester 2) is an excellent opportunity to connect with employers from a range of sectors, explore different industries and find out about opportunities and placements on offer.
Examples of previous employers at the University Careers Fair, include Weightmans LLP, Paramount Digital, National Crime Agency, Ministry of Justice, National Nuclear Laboratory, Forbes Solicitors LLP, AJ Bell, Cheshire Constabulary, Child Action Northwest, Environment Agency, Lancashire Child and Youth Justice Service, Liverpool City Council, Matalan Retail Ltd, Mersey and West Lancashire NHS Trust.
Examples of previous employers at the bespoke School Careers Fair, include Oriel Chambers, Home Office, BLJ Solicitors, Lancashire Constabulary, Fletchers Solicitors, Express Solicitors, Exceptional Care, CEL Solicitors, North Wales Police, Merseyside Offender Mentoring Service, HMP Altcourse, National Probation Service, Trafford Domestic Abuse Service.
Throughout the academic year the School welcomes various external speakers to hold lectures, workshops or masterclasses for students in our School. These provide invaluable opportunities for students to hear from and network with leading experts.
Recent speakers and events have included:
- Lord Justice Holroyde, Vice-President of the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
- Sir Vince Cable, former Liberal Democrat Leader
- Baroness Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
- David Steer KC DL, former Leader of Northern Circuit and Master of the Bench, Middle Temple
- Anthony Walker Foundation workshop
The School, in collaboration with our student Law Society, also holds an annual International Women’s Day Panel which brings together influential women from across the legal and criminal justice sectors to share their experiences, advice and networks with our students.
The School has a well-established network of former students who regularly return to campus to share their experiences and networks with our current students. Through panel events, workshops and our annual School Careers Fair, our alumni share their career journeys, inspiring our current students and providing them with practical advice to enhance their career development. Each year we hold alumni panel events, centred around the theme ‘Where can my degree take me?’, to inspire and motivate our students.
Our alumni association is committed to promoting work experience and networking opportunities for our current students and provides ad hoc mentoring to support students on their chosen career path. Our alumni also support our annual awards evenings, including sponsoring awards for academic achievement.
Contact us
If you would like to find out more about our careers and employability support, or if you are an employer who can potentially make placements available in your organisation, please contact the University’s Employer Engagement Team or Dr Jennifer Giblin (Associate Head of School, Employability and External Relations).