Qualifying Work Experience + SQE training

The SQE is a centralised assessment introduced in 2021 that has replaced the Legal Practice Course (LPC) as the main route to qualification as a solicitor in England & Wales. The introduction of the SQE opens the legal profession to people from diverse backgrounds and degree programmes, each bringing important skills and viewpoints to the legal sector.

Yes. Our programme is designed to allow you to build up QWE, so the SQE preparation module is completely optional. You just need to make sure that you can allocate enough time to completing casework each month, alongside other commitments, such as studying.

Yes – as long as you sign up for the programme a minimum of three months before the start date, so that you can complete the final instalment no later than one month before the programme start date.

Our QWE skills programme is designed to give you the vital skills that you need in order to be able to undertake meaningful QWE which meets the SRA’s requirements. Having completed the SQE, including QWE ourselves, we strongly believe that excellent work experience is the key to developing confidence, knowledge and skills as part of the route to qualification. We also need talented people to work on our client cases, so we decided to focus primarily on getting people trained to do QWE – the SQE preparation is an added extra.

The fee is for our 8-week QWE skills training course, including assessment. Once completed you get access to pro bono opportunities and while you are completing QWE you can also follow our SQE programme for free. Any costs for the SQE assessments need to be paid by you directly to the SRA and Kaplan, the organisation who administer the SQE. We are a self-funding not-for-profit, so our income is invested in legal education and assisting clients.

We do not offer refunds for parts of the programme that have not been used. Our pricing model is designed to be as democratic as possible and you are not paying for an SQE prep course. At the end of the 8-week programme you should have lots of transferable skills that will help you progress in your continuing legal education.

Yes, of course. The price remains the same.

If you do not pass the programme on the first attempt we will explain to you where you can improve and provide further support to get you to the required standard. We do not simply ‘fail’ students.

There are no academic entry requirements, however you must be able to organise your time and work with a degree of autonomy, in exactly the same way that you would be expected to in a workplace environment.

No. Apart from regular meetings which are scheduled at convenient times, you can undertake the work as and when it suits your timetable. The programme is specifically designed for those who either cannot give up their day job, or who have caring responsibilities or other commitments which make it impossible to complete QWE in a traditional 9-5 work environment.

You can take on as much or as little QWE as you like in any given month. You can also increase or decrease your participation depending on other commitments. You will be expected to record all QWE hours and we then calculate your full-time-equivalent QWE at the end of your participation with Sequentus and those are the hours that will be signed off for the purposes of the SRA.

Over the past seven years our team has helped thousands of students learn how to deal with client cases. We have used this experience to develop a very specific programme which is completely different to anything else you might have come across when looking at the SQE route. The SQE learning materials have been developed by lawyers who have actually completed the SQE, understand the challenges of learning a vast amount of knowledge when juggling other priorities, not to mention developing skills. Sequentus is an opportunity driven organisation with the aim of helping you fulfil your own potential…so as long as you are dedicated to passing the SQE, we are here to provide the framework for you to succeed.

Once students have undertaken at least 6 months of pro bono work with Sequentus there may be paid opportunities, but this will be on a case-by-case basis and there will be specific criteria for students to qualify for these opportunities.

No, all of our work is conducted remotely, so you can participate from anywhere in the word, subject to having a good internet connection and the flexibility to be able to interact and meet with our team remotely using online platforms such as Microsoft Teams.