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SQE work experience

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but do you have to complete your 2 years qualifying work experience within a certain time after completing the SQE exams, or could you work in an unrelated job for a while, wait a couple years and do it later? are your exam results etc still valid even without immediate work experience?
It is quite a new system so it may be best to look that up. I believe if you have already provided legal services work supervised by a solicitor which meets the competencies solicitors need (which could be a 2 year training contract in a law firm as in the previous system) that can be work within the last few years even - ie already done. I don't know how far back you can go. For current training solicitors with up to a year's "time to count" I think that must be in the previous 3 years but I am not sure about the new QWE/SQE system. Presumably if it were 20 years ago you would have thought they would not allow that at one extreme.
What is clear is you can do it either before during or after your SQE exams. Eg big law firms are happier with the current system -so want all exams passed (and if you do not pass them you lose your training contract) before you start 2 years of training with them. Other firms may be more flexible.

I don't know the answers to your question and I think the SRA should make all that a lot clearer. Eg there is notime limit after which the LPC expires but firms would not take people on for training contract if the LPC was a long time before as the knowledge of the law would be out of date. I think the previous exam system before the LPC DID have an expiration date (of 7 years). So I suspect even if you do the 2 years of training 2 years afte ryo pass SQE2 it would probably still count. The problem is the law changes all the time so studying laws a long while back could mean the candidate is dangerous in the work place as they will only know the law from a while back and not be up to date so less likely to be employed.
Original post by ihunnings
No question is stupid! The SRA are quite clear that you may reach back in time as far as you want for your QWE. So have a think if you may not already have some or all of your QWE done, but waiting to be confirmed. It doesn't have to have been done in a law firm or in the UK or even be paid work. The SRA require you to have 2 years full time equivalent confirmed to the SRA by an SRA regulated solicitor. The QWE can be before or after passing your SQE exams. The SRA would hope you do some before - as the QWE is prep for the SQE2 exam and doing some before will certainly help you with answering the 16 tests in the SQE2, which are based on real life scenarios. If you have an SRA regulated solicitor in that organisation where you are or have done your QWE, then they can confirm that to the SRA. If you do not, they allow you to reach out to an external solicitor to have the QWE confirmed. I do this and have assisted over 20 Aspiring Solicitors so far. As an external confirming solicitor, the SRA requires me to see the work and get feedback from your supervisor. I always offer a free, no obligation zoom to give info & explore before becoming further involved in assisting.

Oh wow, publicly shilling your sector degrading services on a student forum. Absolutely sickening.

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