LPC or SQE 2023

Ive been looking into doing the lpc this year i was originally going to do it at Birmingham city this September however they have replaced this with the SQE.
I am now stuck between going to ulaw and doing the LPC llm however student finance does not cover it entirely so i would have to pay the rest out of pocket or going to Birmingham city and doing the SQE course this does work out to be cheaper but there are mixed views on the course?

Any advice would be appreciated?

Reply 1

17Student17

16

I would probably do the LPC LLM ( with BPP or University of Law). The reason I prefer it is it is one course with exams set by the provider and it is also open book at BPP (and you can do it online if you prefer). SQE has exams set by Kaplan - exam fees about £5k on top of course fees and is closed book and a new not so well known thing.
Even if you have to do SQE2 and qualify without a training contract via qualifying work experience ultimately if you cannot get a TC this coming year, you would avoid the SQE1 exam.
BPP in Birmingham (or BPP online) costs £15,200 and the masters loan is about £12k so there is a shortfall. However there are no extra SQE exam fees of £4 - £ 5k to pay to Kaplan.

However the downside is if you do not get a training contract you still may later have to sit SQE2 if you have the LPC.

Reply 2

unknown097

OP

2

Original post by 17Student17

I would probably do the LPC LLM ( with BPP or University of Law). The reason I prefer it is it is one course with exams set by the provider and it is also open book at BPP (and you can do it online if you prefer). SQE has exams set by Kaplan - exam fees about £5k on top of course fees and is closed book and a new not so well known thing.
Even if you have to do SQE2 and qualify without a training contract via qualifying work experience ultimately if you cannot get a TC this coming year, you would avoid the SQE1 exam.
BPP in Birmingham (or BPP online) costs £15,200 and the masters loan is about £12k so there is a shortfall. However there are no extra SQE exam fees of £4 - £ 5k to pay to Kaplan.

However the downside is if you do not get a training contract you still may later have to sit SQE2 if you have the LPC.

Hi, Thank you for the reply. I do have some friends who have graduated this year who are doing the SQE however i know people who took the exam in january and failed they now have to wait a year to resit. I am inclined towards the LPC now; however cannot pick between bpp and ulaw i spent a couple of weeks in ulaw doing the lpc in september and dropped out for personal reasons that being said i really did not like the uni at all. Do you have opinions on bpp or any other providers?

Reply 3

17Student17

16

80% use BPP or University of Law. The best London firms -City Consortium firms use BPP. I have had 4 lawyer children using BPP for the LPC - the last 2 finished last year (I am a lawyer too). I think the BPP lecturers are good and the materials, the pass rates are high and that the exam system and the online exam (if you choose that option) and being entirely open book as far as I remember - makes it better too (although UoL have open book I think too and UoL also has good teaching). I like the fact BPP gets the core modules done in about the first term then term 2 is the skills exams and then term 3 your electives - just seems quite a nice structure.

Reply 4

unknown097

OP

2

Original post by 17Student17

80% use BPP or University of Law. The best London firms -City Consortium firms use BPP. I have had 4 lawyer children using BPP for the LPC - the last 2 finished last year (I am a lawyer too). I think the BPP lecturers are good and the materials, the pass rates are high and that the exam system and the online exam (if you choose that option) and being entirely open book as far as I remember - makes it better too (although UoL have open book I think too and UoL also has good teaching). I like the fact BPP gets the core modules done in about the first term then term 2 is the skills exams and then term 3 your electives - just seems quite a nice structure.

Thank you for the reply its been useful. Theres been so much mixed views on the SQE ultimately i guess im just worried about no getting a training contract and having to revert to the sqe. Being a lawyer would you say firms are quite biased with the lpc and do you think training contracts will be phased out?

Reply 5

17Student17

16

There is no bias. The SRA is requiring all new graduates to do the SQE so basically every law firm for most of their trainees has to move to SQE whether they like the LPC or not - they have no choice at all for most new graduates. Therefore as plenty want everyone doing the same things they have moved last year or this or next for every future trainee on to SQE. Some are allowing those with an LPC to choose the LPC as long as they do the professional skills course which trainees must do if they are LPCers but not if they are SQE people when the TC starts before they start work - even that will mess up the SQE er programme as the whole cohort of trainees doing SQE will start eg in September but those who did the LPC have to do the PSC for 2 weeks first; so it is a bit complicated for firms to have people doing different things.

It is certaily a risk that anyone doing the LPC now may still have to pay and do SQE2 (if you have the LPC you don't have to have SQE1).

Training contracts are not being phased out as every solicitor must have 2 years of qualifying work experience (i.e. a training contract), It is simply that for those unable to achieve that they will could qualify if they get similar 2 years of work at up to 4 difference places including voluntary legal services work. However if you don''t have the TC you won't have 2 years of high quality training in 4 different departments of the same firm being trained in exactly what that firm wants - so those people without the TC may not get hired. SQE moves the "bottleneck" of masses of people from the hurdle of getting a TC to loads qualifying with really bad work experience who then may not get good newly qualified jobs.

LPC or SQE 2023

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