Maintaining standards whilst increasing flexibility: changes to the qualification process for solicitors

In this article from the Spring 2008 issue of Directions Clare Gilligan, Head of Education and Training Policy at the Solicitors Regulation Authority, outlines the forthcoming changes to requirements for the Legal Practice Course and introduces the SRA’s work-based learning pilot project.

After many years of discussion and several consultations the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is moving forward with its commitment to make qualification as a solicitor in England and Wales both more flexible and more focused on individuals’ competence to practise.

The latest requirements for the Legal Practice Course (LPC) (see the Legal Practice Course update page give new choices to both providers and students. A work-based learning pilot starting in September 2008 paves the way to new opportunities for individuals currently unable to qualify.

New requirements for the LPC

Turning first to the LPC, a published suite of learning outcomes setting out the “irreducible minimum” all students must achieve to pass will underpin all courses from September 2009. However, there is scope to develop individual courses in different ways, for example to place more emphasis on, and allocate more time to, one or more of the three Core Practice Areas (Litigation, Property Law and Practice, Business Law and Practice) and to determine the context in which the Core Practice Areas and Course Skills are taught and assessed.

Courses will be divided into two stages. Stage 1 covers the three Core Practice Areas together with Professional Conduct and Regulation, Taxation, Wills & the Administration of Estates, and Course Skills. Stage 2 is made up of three Vocational Electives. Providers may decide to combine the stages, but it is anticipated that many will prefer to make them available separately in order to increase student choice. This could make the qualification more affordable, as well as enabling students to choose the electives that best prepare them for the type of practice in which they aim to work. Standard student assessment requirements will apply to all courses.

The opportunity to offer just one or more electives may encourage new providers to enter the LPC market – again opening up student choice and accessibility. The criteria against which organisations seeking authorisation to provide LPCs and individual courses put forward for validation have been revised – providers will need to demonstrate that they understand and are committed to assuring the quality and standards of their courses. The current system of monitoring visits, resulting in grades and published reports will end, however providers will be required to publish common information about their courses and to submit an annual report, including the results of student feedback surveys. This shift in approach to quality assurance is in line with developments in higher education and regulation generally.

How will these new requirements change the style and range of courses available? That is largely in the hands of providers. Some may opt to make only minor changes to existing provision, while others will wish to be more innovative. The entry of new providers into the LPC market could have a significant impact.

The distinction between full and part time routes to qualification could become blurred if, for example, students decide to undertake Stage 1 on a full time and Stage 2 on a part time basis. E-learning developments may be incorporated into new courses, and high street and commercially focused courses may expand. Perhaps more providers will explore whether exempting law degrees or integrated courses combining the academic stage of training and an LPC meet student needs.

Providers can choose to offer new style courses from the start of the 2009-10 academic year. All courses starting in the academic year 2010-11 will have to comply with the new requirements.

Work-based learning pilot project

A major concern over recent years has been the number of students who complete an LPC but are not able to secure a training contract. Many such students do go on to work in legal practice in a variety of roles, but unless they are eventually offered a training contract they will never qualify as a solicitor under the current regulations. The SRA’s work-based learning pilot is intended to address this problem.

Feedback suggests that the regulatory framework within which the training contract requirements operate, including the need to commit to two years’ of employment and training, can act as a deterrent – as a result some firms prefer to employ LPC graduates as paralegals rather than trainees. The pilot will explore how an external body could assess, against a new set of standards, evidence of work in practice and how an individual’s knowledge and skills have developed. Firms comfortable with their obligations as a training establishment will use of the same standards when they decide whether to ‘sign off’ a trainee as ready for admission.

These two strands of work have common themes. Both emphasise that individuals’ competence to practise, properly assessed against published standards, is more important than the way they have chosen to learn. Both pave the way to allow the qualification scheme to be tailored to meet the needs of different people with a range of experiences, priorities and commitments. Both invite providers to be innovative in their approach.

Only the most resolute of optimists would expect implementation of either strand of work to be entirely problem free, but we look forward to working with known and new partners as we go forward.

Last Modified: 4 June 2010