Students report difficulties getting QWE signed off

Lack of understanding among employers

Research shows that some aspiring lawyers are struggling in securing approval for their qualifying work experience (QWE), as training organisations either lack understanding of the new system or opt to keep candidates as paralegals rather than qualified solicitors with higher salaries.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) annual QWE survey found that 17% of students described the sign-off process as “difficult” or “very difficult”, marking a 4% point increase from the previous year.

The three main reasons given by candidates who found the process of getting their QWE confirmed difficult were: the QWE provider did not understand the requirements they needed to meet to confirm QWE; the provider did not want to confirm their QWE because they did not want to employ them as a solicitor (rather than, for example, as a paralegal); and they had completed QWE in a previous role, making it hard to get in touch with the relevant organisation or individual.

Introduced alongside the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE), the changes to on-the-job experience allow aspiring lawyers to bypass the traditional training contract process. They can now complete two years of qualifying work experience (QWE) with up to four different employers, including law firms, in-house legal teams, and law clinics.

QWE must be signed off in accordance with the SRA’s requirements, typically by the compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) or a qualified solicitor within the firm, business or clinic.

In more positive news, the regulator found that nearly three-quarters of respondents considered the process of getting their QWE confirmed “easy” or “very easy,” marking a 7% point increase from last year’s findings.

Elsewhere, 41% of students said it was “easy” or “very easy” to secure QWE, up 10 percentage points from last year’s survey. However, just over 20% said it was “difficult” or “very difficult,” with common reasons being high levels of competition, lack of knowledge about QWE among firms and businesses, and struggles finding QWE in their local area.

Regarding where candidates are completing their QWE, more than 80% said they did so in law firms, and nearly two-thirds did so in other private sector organisations. Nearly half undertook elements of their QWE in public sector organisations, while 28% completed some QWE in a student law clinic.

The SRA’s survey received 280 responses.