Becoming a barrister in England and Wales means completing three components of training set by the Bar Standards Board: the academic component, the vocational component, and the work-based learning component, better known as pupillage. Along the way you must join one of the four Inns of Court, complete ten qualifying sessions, and be Called to the Bar. The regulator recognises four different pathways through those components, and they are not all the traditional route.
One point of terminology first, because the search term is misleading. There is no such thing as a barrister in the United Kingdom as a single qualification. This article covers England and Wales. Scotland has a separate profession, the Faculty of Advocates, with its own route through devilling. Northern Ireland has its own Bar and its own training requirements. Qualifying in one does not qualify you in another.
The three components and the four pathways
The current framework came out of the Bar Qualification Rules, which took effect in April 2019 following the reform programme known as Future Bar Training. The intention was to make qualification more flexible and more affordable while holding entry standards.
The three components are the academic component, the vocational component, and work-based learning. The Bar Standards Board recognises four pathways through them:
- Three-step pathway. Academic component, then the vocational component, then pupillage. This is the traditional route.
- Four-step pathway. The same, except the vocational component is split into two parts, one of which may be self-study.
- Integrated pathway. An undergraduate law degree combined with the vocational subjects in a single longer award, followed by pupillage.
- Apprenticeship pathway. The Barrister Apprenticeship Standard was published in 2024 and approved for delivery by Skills England.
Training in the vocational and pupillage components is delivered by Authorised Education and Training Organisations, or AETOs, which the BSB authorises against its Authorisation Framework. Chambers that take pupils are AETOs too, not just course providers.
The academic component
You need either a qualifying law degree or, if your degree is in another subject, a conversion course. The most common is the Postgraduate Diploma in Law, though names vary between providers. The requirement itself has not changed under the new rules, but on the integrated pathway it may be combined with the vocational component rather than taken separately.
Degree classification carries real weight, and the published data is blunt about it. The Bar Council’s analysis of the 2024 Pupillage Gateway round found that applicants with a First were twice as likely to receive a pupillage offer as those with a 2:1, and that no applicant with a 2:2 or a Third secured an offer through the Gateway that year. That does not make a 2:1 fatal. It does mean that candidates below that mark need to understand what they are up against before committing to the cost of the vocational stage.
Joining an Inn of Court
You must join one of the four Inns, Lincoln’s Inn, Inner Temple, Middle Temple or Gray’s Inn, before you start the vocational component. This is a hard requirement, not a networking suggestion. The Inns admit student members, carry out fit and proper person checks, and deliver qualifying sessions.
Choice of Inn does not restrict practice area or chambers. What differs is scholarship funding, which is substantial and awarded competitively, and the character and location of each Inn’s estate and events. Scholarship deadlines usually fall well before the vocational course begins, so this decision needs making earlier than most candidates expect.
The vocational component
This is the Bar training course, formerly the Bar Professional Training Course. Providers now use various names, including Bar Training Course and Bar Practice Course. It covers advocacy, procedure, evidence, drafting, conference skills and professional ethics, mapped to the competences in the BSB’s Professional Statement.
There are several ways to satisfy it: a single course, full-time over a year or part-time over longer; a course delivered in two parts, one of which may be self-study; or a longer integrated programme combining an undergraduate law degree with the vocational subjects in one award.
Two entry requirements sit alongside the academic component: membership of an Inn, and fluency in English. Assessment is split. Some exams are centralised, set and marked by the BSB itself, and others are set and marked locally by the AETO delivering the course. That split matters, because the centralised assessments are the ones the regulator controls directly and they are the common standard across every provider.
Cost is the honest problem at this stage. Vocational course fees run to five figures, and completing the course confers no entitlement to pupillage. Candidates should form a realistic view of their prospects before committing, because the financial exposure is theirs alone.
Call to the Bar and qualifying sessions
Your Inn Calls you to the Bar once you have passed a Bar training course and completed ten qualifying sessions. Since 1 September 2020 the number required has been ten. Qualifying sessions are educational and collegiate events run by the Inns, designed to complement academic and vocational study and prepare candidates for pupillage.
Call is a genuine milestone, but it is worth being precise about what it does and does not confer. Being Called makes you a barrister. It does not, on its own, permit you to practise. For that you need to complete pupillage and hold a practising certificate.
Pupillage: the work-based learning component
Pupillage normally runs for twelve months, conventionally split into the non-practising first six and the practising second six. In the first six a pupil shadows their supervisor. In the second six, a pupil with provisional practising rights takes their own cases, which for many is the first experience of being on their feet in court. The Professional Ethics assessment now sits within this component.
Most, though not all, pupillages are recruited through the Pupillage Gateway, and applications are typically made during the vocational course. Timelines are unforgiving and applications open earlier than candidates expect.
The competition is the part that generic careers advice tends to soften. The Bar Council recorded 261 applicants with pupillage offers through the Gateway in 2023/24. Not every pupillage is advertised through the Gateway, so the national figure is somewhat higher, but the ratio of applicants to places is severe by any measure. Of those who did secure offers, 52.5% were aged between 25 and 34, which tells you the successful cohort is not dominated by candidates going straight through from university.
Tenancy, and what happens if you do not get it
Pupillage does not guarantee a permanent place. Chambers usually decide on tenancy around ten months into the year. A pupil who is not taken on may apply elsewhere, or undertake a third six, a further six-month period at another set with a view to tenancy there.
The category vocabulary at this stage is worth knowing, because chambers use it precisely. Some barristers hold probationary tenancies. Others are squatters, permitted to work from a set’s premises without membership of it, or door tenants, affiliated with a set without practising from it. Understanding how the self-employed chambers model works makes the tenancy decision considerably easier to read.
Funding
The principal sources are Inn scholarships, postgraduate loans, and targeted support schemes. Inn scholarships are the largest single pot available to most candidates and are awarded on merit, which is another reason to join early enough to apply.
Pupillage itself is funded. Chambers are required to pay their pupils, and awards vary widely between practice areas, with commercial sets paying multiples of what publicly funded sets can offer. The Bar Council’s Pupil Survey found that men were twice as likely as women to hold pupillage awards of £60,000 or more, a gap that persists into practice.
Building a credible application
Experience matters, but selectors are reading for insight rather than volume. Mini-pupillages, mooting, pro bono work and court visits all serve the same purpose: evidence that you understand what the job actually involves and have tested yourself against it.
Written skills carry more weight than most applicants assume. Advocacy at the modern Bar is substantially written, and a candidate who understands what a skeleton argument is for will interview better than one who has only rehearsed oral advocacy. Familiarity with the structure of the courts and with the professional obligations in the BSB Handbook is expected rather than impressive, but its absence is noticed immediately.
Other routes in
The standard pathway is not the only one. Qualified lawyers from other jurisdictions, and solicitors in England and Wales, may apply through the BSB’s transferring lawyers route, which can grant exemptions from components of training depending on qualifications and experience. The apprenticeship pathway offers a route that does not depend on the conventional degree-then-course sequence. Candidates who fall outside the standard model should check the waivers and exemptions position with the BSB’s Authorisations team rather than assuming the traditional route is compulsory.
What the route actually asks of you
The structure is fixed and public. The difficulty is not in understanding it but in surviving the two points where the funnel narrows sharply: securing pupillage, and converting pupillage into tenancy. Candidates who plan for those two points, rather than treating the qualification as a series of courses to be passed, tend to do better.
The profession is also more open than its reputation suggests, and changing. There were 17,864 practising barristers in England and Wales as at June 2025, of whom just over 3,000 were employed rather than self-employed, and the Young Bar accounted for close to a quarter of the profession.
This article is information and analysis, not legal or careers advice. Training requirements are set by the Bar Standards Board and change from time to time. Confirm current requirements with the BSB and your Inn before making decisions.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to become a barrister?
For a law graduate on the traditional route, around five years: three years for the degree, one year for the vocational component, and twelve months of pupillage. Non-law graduates add a conversion course. Time spent applying for pupillage, or completing a third six, extends this.
Do you need a law degree to become a barrister?
No. Non-law graduates can complete a conversion course to satisfy the academic component. Selectors focus on academic performance and analytical ability rather than the subject of the first degree.
What is the difference between being Called to the Bar and practising as a barrister?
Your Inn Calls you to the Bar once you have passed a Bar training course and completed ten qualifying sessions. Call makes you a barrister, but you cannot practise until you have completed pupillage and hold a practising certificate.
How competitive is pupillage?
Very. The Bar Council recorded 261 applicants with pupillage offers through the Pupillage Gateway in 2023/24, against a far larger applicant pool. Its data also shows applicants with a First were twice as likely to receive an offer as those with a 2:1.
Do you have to join an Inn of Court?
Yes. Membership of one of the four Inns is required before you begin the vocational component, and your Inn is the body that Calls you to the Bar.
Can solicitors or overseas lawyers become barristers?
Yes, through the Bar Standards Board’s transferring lawyers route. Exemptions from parts of Bar training may be granted depending on qualifications and experience, assessed case by case.