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How does the SQE work?

I am wondering how you take it. Should you apply for training contract first and then apply for SQE at a law school? Does the law firm refer you and fund you the way it did with LPC? Or is this funded solely by student finance? What do you study during SQE? How long does it take?

Reply 1

UniofLaw Student

Official Rep

Original post by burberry_butter

Hi @burberry_butter

There are two ways you can do the SQE (through a TC or self-funded). If you want a firm to fund it, then you apply for a training contract (TC) before starting as you would have done with the LPC and they will then fund your SQE tuition and exams. If you want to self-fund then you can either just pay for the exams without tuition (although this may not be the best idea as the pass rate is not the highest) or you can pay for a tuition course through an institution such as ULaw etc. If you want to get student finance, then you can do an LLM Legal Practice (SQE) which is a Masters level degree from unis such as ULaw. By doing this, you can access student finance (as long as it is your first Masters degree). In terms of studying, you have several multiple-hour-long SBAQ papers which requires you to learn legal principles and procedures.

I hope this helps and good luck!

Sophie 🙂