Fabbiha grew up in East London.
After finishing sixth form, she secured a place on LTSB’s law programme and has now been selected to do a Level 4 Governance Apprenticeship at One Advisory, a leading City advisory firm providing financial reporting and governance advisory services, primarily to listed companies.
When she left school, Fabbiha knew she was interested in a career in law, but she was still unsure if university would be the right path for her. She decided to take a gap year and took a part-time job in the meantime.
When I finished my A-Levels I had an offer to study law at university. But I still wasn’t confident that the university route was the right one for me, so I decided to take a gap year as I was unsure of what to do next.
I started a new part-time role, but I was really looking for something more permanent, or some work experience in the legal sector.
Once her gap year started, Fabbiha found it very difficult to find the opportunity she was looking for, as there was very little information or support available for gap year students once they left school. She also found herself lacking confidence around her potential, the quality of her skill set and whether she was ready for a working environment. All this made it hard to know what to do next.
I found it difficult to find the opportunities I was looking for. When I was in Sixth Form, there was lots of information about the opportunities that were out there. However, I couldn’t find anything aimed at gap year students or people my age who hadn’t gone to uni. There were legal roles aimed at students in sixth form or at university, but nothing for people like me, who were in the middle.
I was interested in a legal career because I did A-level Law at school. I was really interested in the laws that shape our country and in legal cases; and I loved discussing these with my friends to explore all the different perspectives. This is what made me want to work in law in the future.
Although I knew I did have some skills, I felt these probably weren’t polished enough to start a career. There were aspects like teamwork and communication that I had developed during school, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready for a corporate environment. I still wasn’t confident in just being myself, or in my ability to do a good job application and then perform well enough at an interview to get an offer.
Before I joined LTSB, a lot of my friends were heading off to university. It felt weird to be ‘left behind’ and see my peers experience new things that I could’ve also been a part of. But when it came down to it, I knew that I wanted to start my career now.
It was at her part-time job that Fabbiha was introduced to LTSB. She happened to meet someone at work who had been part of an LTSB cohort, and who told her about our the charity and the opportunities she could explore.
I found out about LTSB from a member of the 2024 Law cohort. I had just started this new job and I had saw her around, but we really got started talking when she happened to find me in Central London. When she found out I was also interested in Law, she recommended the LTSB law programme. I saw that the programme was advertised as a boot camp for young people who were yet to go to uni but were still interested in a legal career. I could see we would be visiting law firms, and I really wanted to see this for myself: it just aligned with all my goals. So, I decided to give it a try: I reached out, had an interview and then I was offered a place!
When Fabbiha decided to take part in the programme, she had several goals in mind that she hoped to achieve from the experience. The programme offered her the opportunity to do this, and she recalls having to overcome a lack of confidence to present on cybersecurity, and being able to represent her group in delivering the presentation.
While LTSB did offer the chance to visit many different law firms, what I really wanted to get out of the programme was developing my transferable skills. I could see we would have to give presentations and I knew that my confidence in communicating wasn’t the strongest so I could definitely improve it during this program.
When we visited Kroll, they asked us to create a SWOT analysis on potential cybersecurity attack. Our group then had to present this to the President of Risk Advisory and I volunteered myself to give the presentation. This was very intimidating, but at the same time it was exactly what I really needed to push my confidence. What I really appreciated was the fact I was able to communicate my team’s ideas and present these in a way that I could be proud of.
With all the practice we did on presentations and communication, I came out of the programme a lot more assured in my abilities. For my new role, I had three interviews and if I hadn’t completed this programme, I know I wouldn’t have been as confident and as driven as I was able to be in my apprenticeship interview.
Taking part in the programme enabled Fabbiha to look at her own employability skills and the particular challenges she was facing and then work to develop these to become work-ready. She also had to overcome some practical challenges whilst on the programme, and work out how to resolve these around her additional commitments.
The main challenges for me were around communication and confidence. I’ve only recently started trying to push myself to be more confident and more vocal in my ideas and my own perspectives. I was always fairly quiet as school, and I didn’t really speak up.
Now that I’m older, I realise that people will listen my ideas, I just need to be more vocal about it. Since I took part in the LTSB programme, I’ve been much more able to speak up and share my perspectives.
During one session we had to give a presentation on a certain topic. I couldn’t present this time because I had to go to work, but during the lunch break I found I could help my group in other ways, like finishing the presentation and making sure the design was appealing and accessible for both my team and for the audience. The feedback was really great, for both my team and how they presented and for the design itself.
I found that balancing the programme with my other commitments was also a struggle. Organisation is such a key skill for apprenticeships, especially for Sixth Formers where our days were very structured. Learning on what helps me stay on top of things is something that I will definitely take to my apprenticeship and beyond.
For Fabbiha, the long-term impact of taking part in the LTSB Law Programme has gone far beyond the programme’s curriculum. As well as gaining industry experience and polishing her skills to secure her apprenticeship, she also benefited in many other ways.
The biggest difference and the most enjoyable thing for me was definitely working with my cohort. When you take a gap year you can feel quite isolated, but being on the programme with other people who were my age and in similar situations became a really important support network for me. When we catch up now, we still always check in and see how we can help one another.
I was also surprised by how supportive LTSB has been. Once you have done work experience people don’t usually keep in touch afterwards. But with LTSB, Debs has always kept in touch and checked in with us, asking what’s going on and if there’s anything she can help with.
My interview skills have definitely improved. Now, I can walk into an interview knowing what I want to talk about, and I can do it in a way that sounds quite natural. I definitely saw the fruits of this during NatWest’s LG&RA work experience, where I managed to stay calm during a mock interview, where I could only answer with one word!
After the boot camp, Debs messaged me to tell me about an upcoming insight day at a leading construction firm. One of the professionals we met was the Company Secretary. I listened to her describing her job, which was just as engaging as a legal career but you get a broader insight into the business by supporting board members.. I never knew that this was something I could do, and I immediately started looking for roles in compliance and government. Without that insight day, I wouldn’t have found my apprenticeship.
I have now secured a Level 4 apprenticeship in governance, and I will spend 18 months as a junior governance officer. This will involve supporting the governance team, making sure clients follow their own policies and procedures to ensure their business is running properly.
I’m very excited about starting my apprenticeship. There’s such a big difference going from a gap year to a corporate role (and that does bring some nervousness) but the skills I’ve developed and the areas I’ve improved on make me much more prepared for the role than I was before.
We asked Fabbiha what advice she would you give to another young person in the situation that she was in before.
Generally, just ask yourself: what do you want to do with your life? A lot of my friends chose the university route because it felt like the correct path to take. I don’t want other young people to make that mistake, because there’s a lot more out there and it’s available to you if you know how to access it. It’s worth looking into your own interests and thinking about what do you see yourself doing; and then finding out what’s available.
In five years’ time, I would have hopefully completed my Level 4 qualification, and I would hopefully move on to the qualifying programme to become a Chartered Governance Professional. That comes with a lot more study and hard work but I think what will help me get through the process is making sure I have a network of people who can help support me achieve the best I can. I do also want to be able to talk to others about governance – its not a very well known pathway in the early careers space, and I think a lot of young people like myself would really benefit from learning about the options they have instead of university.
