WHY THE COLLEGE OF LEGAL PRACTICE WAS PROUD TO SPONSOR BIRMINGHAM LAW SOCIETY’S ALTERNATIVE DINNER FOR JUNIOR LAWYERS

Peter Liver, Chief Operations Director the College, writes that they are very happy to be seen in the alternative box! We like doing things differently, and in fact the College has gone to great efforts to start our SQE training design from a blank sheet of paper, with no LPC baggage, and focus on what all students really need to succeed in passing the SQE.

One of our main goals as an organisation is to facilitate access to the profession, this desire to support everyone to progress their career runs through everything we do, not just one-off schemes that sit on the side of our application process. Here are a number of ways in which we help every legal professional achieve their unique potential.

Expert individual supervision

The College takes an individual supervision approach across all our programmes. We recognise that everyone is different and particular for those who lack confidence, networks and other support, providing individual support is invaluable in giving them the encouragement and reflection that they need to perform at the best of their abilities. Our individual supervision and support is very highly rated by our students and is one of the most comprehensive on the market. Our learning design focuses on making it easy and accessible for the learner, every practice area is broken down again into sub-units, and each unit has a very simple learning structure that step-by-step builds students’ knowledge and abilities in a measured way towards full SQE mock assessments.

Moreover, the vast majority of our learning can be completed at time that suits the student and can take into account their work and life pressures and circumstances. We have a range of courses that suit different people depending on their needs. For example, we have a new mum taking our current SQE1 prep course, alongside other busy working legal professionals. Live sessions are recorded and supervisors don’t work just 9-5. So, as long as the students keep to the weekly deadlines and submissions we are happy with them learning at a time that suits them.

We will give every student the best chance of passing the SQE

Our supervisors are on it! They will advise students where they are in their performance against where they need to be to pass the SQE. Towards the end of the course, supervisors reflect with every student individually on their progress through an SQE Ready Review. This review is prior to the booking window closing for the assessment, and gives the students crucial information and advice as to whether to progress to the assessment for that sitting. It gives them the opportunity to consider pushing the assessment back by 3 or 6 months if need be for more study time, and could save them valuable time and money. We then continue to offer support to students until they are ready to take the assessments and for their first retake if required.

We actively seek and support students who are under-represented in the legal profession or face barriers to progression.

The College is still young, and our approach to diversity and inclusion is developing all the time. So far, we are very keen to encourage any students to consider us, who may have additional learning requirements, lack confidence due to barriers they have faced in their lives, or just don’t feel that they fit the traditional lawyer profile.

We have already supported students with visual impairments, learning difficulties, older students and those from lots of different ethnic groups. We are now looking at scholarship schemes and partnerships with firms that can help us achieve our goals in this area.

Reflections on the Alternative dinner

Thank you for allowing us to join your Alternative Dinner at Edgbaston, we had a great time, and it was a privilege to meet so many inspiring legal professionals. The speakers were fantastic, all exuding confidence and helpful tips to help progression in our sector. The buzz in the room was something that you don’t always experience at such events!

We look forward to meeting you all again soon,

About the College

The College of Legal Practice is a fully accredited postgraduate law school based in the UK. We offer highly flexible legal training programmes at competitive prices. Established in 2019, The College of Legal Practice formed as a wholly-owned UK subsidiary of The College of Law in Australia; a not-for-profit provider and market leader with over 50 years of experience in legal education. If you would like to find out more about our approach to supporting students to pass the SQE, please visit the website or get in touch.