Shannon Montford

"I am a Paralegal Apprentice working for Arqiva. The personality types that matched with me were campaigner, innovator and explorer. These characteristics of a campaigner are being a good listener and helping people work together. Innovator being confident, open minded and a leader. Explorer being eager, curious and resilient. I think these personality types match me perfectly and these traits help me with my role as a paralegal. Training to be a lawyer means you need to be able to listen and be confident. it also requires you to be open minded and curious. "

"As an Apprentice Paralegal I work with lots of different people on a day to day, including project managers and external suppliers. The main work I carry out is opening cases and managing the files and funds within the cases. I also travel to different sites and to law firms. I have to apply my knowledge from what I learn to what I do, this includes communication techniques and working as a team. Working for a communications company means I am surrounded by individuals who work in engineering and cyber security. I also complete assignments for my apprenticeship and revise for upcoming exams. I enjoy everything about my job but the overall opportunity to network and gain experience is great. I enjoy going to meetings and calling solicitors as it gives me the chance to leave a good impression on experienced solicitors so they trust me to help with their work. I am an ambassador for the Young Apprentice Ambassador Network (YAAN) and a Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Ambassador Network in Arqiva. For the YAAN I travel to different schools to talk about apprenticeships, this enables me to influence others like I was. As a D&I ambassador I promote diversity in my workplace and support new strategies to do this. "

"I studied law at college and really enjoyed it, I have always wanted to go into law. I was inspired by people coming into my college for talks as I was able to hear other people's real-life experiences and how they got there. I then carried out work experience at my local citizens advice bureau which enhanced my passion for law. I applied to a few apprenticeships and Arqiva stood out to me most due to the values they encouraged and the work that they carried out. Working hard is the key, it means you can be more flexible when choosing what you want to do."

"In my spare time I enjoy going to the gym and cooking healthy food. I usually go to the gym 3 times a week and then go swimming twice a week. I feel that exercise makes your mind work better. As well as being a role model for WISE, I am also a role model at home due to my mum being a foster carer. I also spend time with my foster sisters taking them to the cinema or bowling. I love to explore, if I am not spending time with my family or working out, I love to adventure to new places and go on long walks with my sisters dog's Sasha and Ebs."

"My day consists of phone calls, emails, meetings and opening new cases. I usually will have a catch-up meetings with my team to go over the day and what we have done or what needs doing. I then make a list of my priorities for that day. This usually consists of opening new instructions, printing documents and drafting documents. I also must update trackers and make a list from these trackers on sites that I need to focus on for that day. I spend some time calling solicitors and updating project trackers. I also have meetings with external law firms to go over what they are dealing with, so we can get an update on their progress and advise them if necessary. I am making a new tracking system for our team, this is to ensure it works for everyone in my team and makes it easier for them to work with. So, I will look at excel videos and spend some time adding to the new tracker. I spend once a week studying for my apprenticeship through webinars with my law teacher, we cover subjects such as law and practise and land law. "

"I studied Law (Distinction (A), Criminology (B) and Media Studies (A) at college. In Law I learned about criminal/civil law and contract law. In Criminology I learnt about theories of crime and looked into case studies. In Media Studies I learned about the main theories surrounding the media and had to make a magazine front cover for my coursework. I have certificates in legal research and british values. "