Founded in 2002, the Aquitaine Legal Institute has stood out in the field of legal training by adapting to technological developments. We have the chance to discuss with its co-founder Bénédicte Del Risco about the impact of digitalization in training.
Can you introduce us to the Aquitaine Legal Institute?
I’m Bénédicte Del Risco. With Géraldine Mariotte, we founded the Institut Juridique d’Aquitaine (IJA) 22 years ago. This training center specializes in preparing paralegals. Our training offers are primarily aimed at professionals in law firms, notary offices and corporate legal services, the latter focusing on practical legal skills.
These training courses include specific modules for assistants in areas such as business law, real estate law and the management of legal proceedings. We have always made it a point of honor to guarantee quality training, prioritizing the expertise of our speakers, all from the professional world. They are also designed to meet the specific needs of employers, who are looking for professionals capable of quickly adapting to practical situations and managing complex tasks in their daily lives.
The Institute has been able to diversify over the years, evolving towards e-learning and the digitalization of courses, while retaining its main objective: to train competent legal assistants, ready to quickly enter the job market.
The Aquitaine Legal Institute is the result of our observations of labor market trends. Professionals in the legal sector face real difficulties in recruiting paralegals with the necessary practical skills. At the time, candidates generally had either a secretarial or management degree or theoretical training in law, but lacked operational skills in the legal field. This shortcoming resulted in a lack of professionalism in tasks as essential as file management or the preparation of specific legal documents.
To fill this gap, the Institute has designed a training course adapted to the specific needs of professionals in the legal sector. We worked directly with lawyers, notaries, and justice commissioners to define a program that exactly meets their expectations. This unique training program allows students to acquire practical legal skills, going well beyond the theoretical knowledge often found in university courses.
Another key element of the IJA’s success is its official certification. By registering its training courses in the RNCP (National Directory of Professional Certifications), the institute has enabled its graduates to benefit from recognition of their skills on the job market. A guarantee of quality and professionalism, the title obtained is recognized at the national level and allows young graduates to more easily enter the job market.
New technologies are at the heart of training transformations. This digital revolution has allowed the Institute to adapt to the new expectations of learners and the job market. We have therefore taken a strategic shift towards e-learning, now offering fully digital training courses.
In the beginning, e-learning was limited to PDFs and static documents. At the time, digitalization mainly consisted of transferring the content of face-to-face training to a digital format, without real interactivity. Then, we integrated educational videos, audio lessons and interactive exercises. These additions make learning more dynamic and allow better immersion for learners.
Digitalization has also made training more flexible, allowing trainees to learn at their own pace, while maintaining a quality educational approach. This makes learning more attractive, especially for busy people, who can now train anywhere, at any time. By offering interactive modules and online discussion spaces, the IJA responds to a crucial need for accessibility and efficiency in continuing education.
This digital transformation, accompanied by an adapted educational approach, is an example of how new technologies can enrich the learning experience while meeting the challenges of an ever-changing job market.
Can you tell us about the challenges encountered during the digitalization of your training?
The Aquitaine Legal Institute has taken a big step forward by digitalizing its training, a process that has not been without its challenges. Digitalization requires complete educational reflection. We had to rethink each course to adapt it to the e-learning format, with interactive modules and regular follow-ups.
This transition to digital has been much more than a simple conversion of online courses. It required a complete reinvention of the way training was delivered. It wasn’t just about moving documents or videos online. We had to adapt the entire educational path: reorganize the modules, introduce interactive assessments, and above all maintain a learning dynamic throughout the process.
The move to e-learning was accompanied by the creation of a tailor-made platform, developed specifically to meet the needs of learners in a legal environment. We did not opt for a standard platform, but chose to create a tool that exactly matched our working method and the requirements of our trainees. This platform makes it possible to follow learners at each stage of their journey, with tools to ask questions, access various educational resources, and participate in online monitoring sessions.
In addition, the IJA has integrated interactive elements such as quizzes, videos and practical case simulations, essential to make legal training more dynamic and concrete. We’ve moved away from the static model of simple PDFs to deliver immersive and engaging learning experiences. Thanks to these digital tools, the Institute has not only modernized its offer, but also enabled better accessibility and flexibility for its learners, including those geographically distant.
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While AI offers enormous potential in the field of training, I remain cautious about its use. AI is an incredible tool, but it cannot replace humans in the training process. Although AI can transform the way educational content is delivered, it does not always meet the requirements for quality learning, especially in technical and practical fields such as legal.
Let’s take the example of evaluations. AI can generate quizzes or document-based assessments, but it cannot pin down the specifics of the practical skills required for paralegals. Legal assistants must not only master theoretical knowledge, but also know how to apply this knowledge in concrete and often complex situations, such as managing client files or drafting legal documents. However, AI, even advanced, remains limited to standardized mechanisms that do not take these nuances into account.
AI can be used to automate certain repetitive tasks, such as managing assessments or checking basic knowledge. But the role of the trainer remains fundamental. In my opinion, the key lies in human interaction: A trainer, especially a working professional, brings not only his technical expertise, but also his field experience, which no AI system can really reproduce. This human approach, capable of contextualizing learning and adapting it to the specific needs of each trainee, is the key to the success of any professional training.
Does artificial intelligence risk widening inequalities in access to education or rather democratizing knowledge?
I am convinced that access to knowledge has already been largely democratized thanks to the Internet, well before the advent of AI. Digital tools have already enabled many learners, even geographically distant ones, to follow quality training. Thanks to the Internet, people around the world, even in rural or isolated areas, have been able to access otherwise inaccessible educational resources. This accessibility has been a major driver in expanding the learner base, particularly for specialized sectors where training was previously restricted to specific urban centers or institutions.
However, I highlight a major challenge: the quality and reliability of sources. AI, although a powerful tool, is not enough to ensure the relevance of information. For me, the real challenge of democratizing knowledge involves learning the skills necessary to distinguish reliable sources. AI, used well, can facilitate access to educational content, but it cannot replace human judgment in evaluating the quality of information.
The Aquitaine Legal Institute, for example, has always made a point of offering training courses where the human aspect remains essential. Although AI can help create content or manage educational courses, human supervision is essential to guarantee education that meets quality and ethical criteria. The emphasis is placed on personalized support and direct interaction with professionals in the sector, allowing students not only to learn, but also to understand the real and practical issues of the field.
How can academic institutions balance technological innovation and maintaining human support?
I see the future of training as a fine balance between advanced technology and human intervention. The main challenge for vocational training is to constantly adapt its courses to rapid changes in the job market. In a context where the skills demanded by companies are evolving rapidly, the Institute makes a point of integrating modern tools to make training more flexible and accessible to a diverse audience.
The Aquitaine Legal Institute relies on continuous innovation to support its students in this increasingly digital world. It’s not just about offering content online, but about creating interactive training courses that integrate tools like videos, practical exercises, and instant assessments, in order to make learning more dynamic.
However, I insist that technology should not replace humans, but rather accompany them. People are at the heart of teaching. Practical skills must be transmitted by professionals who live the profession. This is why the institute continues to call on legal experts to enrich the training courses, thus ensuring that trainees receive lessons anchored in the reality on the ground.
This complementarity between technological tools and human expertise is the key for the Aquitaine Legal Institute, which is committed to training highly qualified legal assistants, capable of meeting the demands of the job market while maintaining an educational approach centered on ‘human.
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