Professional Skills Course (PSC). This is a modular course that aims to ensure that you’ve reached the appropriate level of skills and knowledge during the LPC and the training contract. Firms must pay for their trainees to attend the PSC. If you qualify as a solicitor via the SQE, you’re not required to complete the PSC. Instead, solicitors must look out for their own training and development requirements to ensure their continuing competence. This is intended to make continuing competence more flexible, enabling solicitors to pursue their individual training needs. Non-university graduates Non-graduates can qualify as a solicitor through the Chartered Institute of Legal
Executives (CILEX), which involves completing several years’ qualifying
employment (usually in a law firm), passing specific CILEX exams, and then applying to the SRA to be considered exempt from some of its qualification requirements. For more on CILEX, see the ‘Alternative careers’ and ‘CILEX’ chapters on pages 42 and 108, respectively.
Reality check: Remember that although most firms currently use the four-seat training contract model described here, this could change over the coming years – some also run training on a non-rotational basis. A smaller number of firms also choose to operate a six-seat training system, exposing trainees to a wider variety of practice areas.
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