Law, Rights and Public Policy· Beginner level

Most legal work happens at a desk. Reading contracts, drafting documents, checking whether a rule applies, writing advice that has to be right.

Jobs in this area include lawyer, paralegal, legal officer in a bank or company, court registrar or clerk, policy analyst in government, human rights researcher, compliance officer, legislative drafter, land or estate officer, immigration adviser and law enforcement. Judges come from experienced lawyers, later.

In Ghana, the legal profession is fused, meaning a qualified lawyer can both advise and appear in court. Lawyers work in private chambers, banks, mining and telecoms companies, government, and NGOs.

In Canada, lawyers work in firms of every size, government, in-house legal departments, and community legal clinics. In Ontario, licensed paralegals are a separate regulated profession with their own scope of work.

Pick three of these and find out how much of each involves court.

In Ghana you can study law as a first degree. Some universities admit students into an LLB straight from senior high school; others admit only students who already hold a first degree. Either way, the academic degree is not enough on its own: qualifying as a lawyer requires professional training at the Ghana School of Law, with entry involving an examination and interview stage, before being called to the Bar under the General Legal Council.

In Canada there is no undergraduate law degree. You complete a bachelor's degree in any subject, write the LSAT, then take a three-year law degree, then get licensed by the law society of your province, which involves examinations and a period of supervised practice. Quebec runs a civil law system with its own separate route.

For subjects, in Ghana the General Arts programme with Literature in English, Government, History, Economics or French is a common preparation, and credits in English Language and Core Mathematics are normally required for tertiary entry. In Canada your degree subject is genuinely open, so read widely and take the strongest English course available.

Law is a skill you can practise now, with no special access.

Pick something short and real: your school's rules on a specific issue, a local by-law, the terms of service of an app you use, or a short published judgment. Read it twice.

Then write one page in four parts. What is the issue in one sentence. Who is affected and how. At least two possible readings or options, with the argument for each. One recommendation, in plain language, with the reason.

The skill being tested is not having an opinion. It is stating the other side's case fairly before disagreeing with it. Try it on something you feel strongly about and see how hard it is.

Label your work as an exercise. It is not legal advice, and neither is anything a mentor says.

Ask what a normal week looks like and how much of it is reading. Ask what the worst part of the job is. Ask how they chose their area of law. Ask what they would study now.

There is a hard line here. Never ask a mentor about a real legal problem affecting you or your family, and never describe one. They are not your lawyer, no lawyer-client relationship exists, and sharing details in an educational session can harm a real case.

If you or someone you know needs actual legal help, that goes to a legal aid service, a lawyer, or a trusted adult who can arrange it, not to a career mentor.

Keep your own details out of the session and get guardian approval if you are 12 to 18.

This field rewards volume of careful reading, so build the month around it.

A realistic month: write two more one-page briefs on different issues, read something long and difficult all the way through, join or start a debate or discussion group, and read one law programme's entry requirements in full.

Put dates on all four.