Bar Vocational Course

The Bar Course is a postgraduate vocational course which allows graduates of law to study and train to be barristers in England and Wales. A total of ten institutions are authorised by the Bar Standards Board to run the Bar Course, and all students of the Bar Course are required to register with one of the four Inns of Court prior to enrolment. The Inns of Court are the only institutions authorised to call students to the Bar of England and Wales, whereby those who successfully complete the Bar Course are eligible to be named as barristers. The Bar Course was known until 2020 as the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), and before September 2010 was known as the Bar Vocational Course (BVC). Individual providers offer the Bar Course under different names, but their curricula remain substantively the same.