Could the SQE result in ''pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap' education?

The latest steps in the ongoing and very lengthy process of creating ‘new’ pathways for aspiring solicitors to enter the profession were announced by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in December.

The proposals for a solicitors qualifying exam (SQE) are nothing new but, unlike previous changes, its introduction would impact on all elements of the pathway to becoming licensed. There are 104 institutions offering undergraduate law degrees; ?33 offering the graduate diploma in law (GDL); and 26 offering the legal practice course (LPC) – so a significant number of institutions will be affected.

Profession’s gatekeeper

Currently, the pathways to becoming a solicitor are prescribed by the SRA. The traditional route is to complete a qualifying law degree or GDL, followed by the LPC, and then undertake a period of work-based learning (the training contract). 

The SRA is proposing that it will no longer prescribe the route. Instead, the regulator will act as gatekeeper to the profession by way of a competence-based assessment. The intending solicitor must successfully complete the SQE and a period of work-based learning. There will be two parts to the SQE: knowledge and skills. This will align with its statement of solicitor competence (introduced in April 2015), statement of legal knowledge, and the threshold standard. 

However, the SRA will no longer prescribe what a learner must do in order to acquire the knowledge or skills. Further, it will not require the intending solicitor to be a graduate, but remains hopeful that an element of the graduate will be present in the process.

The intention is to increase flexibility around how an aspiring solicitor will acquire the knowledge and skills in order to successfully pass the SQE, resulting in more routes into the profession, with an aim of widening participation.

There are, though, both risks and opportunities in the proposals.

Pile ‘em high?

My fear is that, in the longer term, the market will determine the process of how an intending solicitor obtains the required knowledge to practise (it no longer being required to be a graduate). 

The market should innovate to provide new market learning programmes to support an intending solicitor to successfully complete the SQE.

But what could happen, unfortunately, is that the market devolves into competition for the shortest courses at the cheapest cost, with the sole objective of successfully completing the SQE. This would lead to teaching for what is going to be assessed, instead of teaching about what needs to be learned. Compared to the cost and time of completing undergraduate studies and the SQE, such alternative programmes of learning could prove very appealing. 

 The attractiveness of the shortest or cheapest course may drive out programmes with more in-depth learning – courses that would do more than just provide the knowledge and skills needed to pass the SQE.

Fully baked trainees

This could be a fantastic opportunity for legal service providers who have long complained that the prescribed routes and programmes of learning do not adequately provide the ‘fully baked’ trainees their business needs. 

Education providers and firms should collaborate to create new learning programmes that do more than merely ensure the successful completion of the SQE. Such programmes will meet the needs of the intended solicitor, the business, the clients, and wider society with a highly skilled and competent profession. 

Consultation response

Introduction of the SQE is still subject to consultation until 4 March 2016 (www.sra.org.uk/sra/consultations/t4t-assessing-competence.page). 

Thereafter, the SRA will consult on the proposals about the pathways to becoming licensed. Firms should consider the advantages to their business of investing in their future solicitors by working in collaboration with education providers on their training needs to achieve a skilled and competent future solicitor workforce.

Jackie Panter is associate head of law at Manchester Metropolitan University @jackiepanter www.law.mmu.ac.uk