Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Education Review Call for Evidence and Feedback. The breadth of engagement and the quality of responses form an invaluable contribution to the Review.
Publication documents
- Education Review Call for Evidence and Feedback: Summary Report
- Education Review Call for Evidence and Feedback: Findings Report
- Education Review Call for Evidence and Feedback: Annexes
Key findings
Call responses have told us about the importance of upholding high professional standards and ensuring qualification routes into the professions remain fit for the future. This includes in changing practice contexts and to meet changing client needs.
We have particularly heard about the central role that work-based learning must continue to play in developing trainees’ professional competence. Many respondents emphasised the value of supervised practical experience, mentoring, and workplace support to enable trainees to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for contemporary professional practice. We have also heard the imperatives that any changes arising from the Education Review must be proportionate for all parties and sensitive to the different needs of the patent and trade mark attorney professions.
Call responses provided us with valuable profession-specific insights. Patent-specific responses told us about the importance of maintaining technical excellence and ensuring qualification arrangements continue to reflect the specialist nature of patent practice in different roles and environments. Trade mark-specific responses emphasised the increasingly commercial and multidisciplinary nature of trade mark attorneys’ work, and the need for qualification arrangements to reflect evolving areas of practice.
What happens next?
We will now use the Call responses, alongside our wider research and stakeholder engagement activities, to inform the development of our Review proposals. Our activity will focus on making appropriate updates to IPReg’s competency frameworks, accreditation standards, and quality assurance arrangements for qualification routes into the professions. We will conduct a public consultation on our proposals and draft outputs. We currently plan to launch the three-month consultation from late 2026 or early 2027.
For further information about the Education Review, please visit the FAQs or contact edreview@ipreg.org.uk.
Original consultation documents
The Call materials remain available for reference: