First cohort of graduate solicitor apprentices start work towards SQE
24 February 2021
McIntosh: Releasing talent
Eight graduate solicitor apprentices have started work at national insurance practice Keoghs, one of the first law firms to offer this approach.
David McIntosh, Keoghs’ people development manager, said the new route would open the profession to those “excluded for financial reasons”, in particular by the cost of the legal practice course (LPC).
Mr McIntosh said there would be a “blended approach” to learning, with apprentices spending a day a week in the classroom at the University of Law (ULaw) over a period of up to 30 months.
The College of Legal Practice (CoLP) has unveiled its preparatory courses for the new Solicitors Qualification Exam (SQE), declaring them a “generational change for legal education.”
The full online programme preparing students to pass the SQE1 and SQE2 examinations will launch in summer 2021 and is called Developing Legal Professionals (DLP). It is divided into three distinct courses which can either be taken separately or combined as part of a Master of Laws (LLM) in Legal Practice.
They are the Solicitors Legal Knowledge (SLK) course, which provides preparation for the SQE1 examination; the Solicitors Legal Skills (SLS) course to prepare for the SQE2 examination; and legal skills modules, which provide a range of transactional training units across core practice areas.
Qualifying as a solicitor was not only meant to be more straightforward under a radical overhaul of the process that comes into effect this autumn, it was meant to be much more affordable.There are
Hopes of removing ‘artificial and unjustifiable’ barriers to the profession have been dealt a blow as costs for the new SQE are unveiled, renewing fears of a two-tier system.