What is the SQE?
Who is the SQE for?
Costs and fees
Dates and locations
Assessment information
The assessment day
Results and resits
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Unless you started your training journey by September 2021, you will have to sit and pass the SQE in order to qualify, regardless of your chosen route to qualification as a solicitor.
You may be an apprentice, completing your apprenticeship with a law firm, or a paralegal with a non-law degree who has done Qualifying Work Experience in a range of settings such as a law firm and in-house department. Or you may have worked in a legal advice centre.
You may have done a law degree and gained some of your Qualifying Work Experience. Or if you're CILEx qualified, or a barrister, you can take the SQE to become a solicitor.
Your journey to the SQE reflects the pathways you have chosen to get relevant training and work experience. But the SQE provides one common standard for everyone to demonstrate that they have the appropriate skills and knowledge to practise as a solicitor in England and Wales.
You may already have some legal work experience, legal education or may be currently working in a legal environment. So if you're a paralegal, barrister, have a CILEx qualification, or any other relevant qualification or experience, the SQE could be the next step.
If you are a qualified lawyer seeking admission as a solicitor of England and Wales, you do not need to do Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) and you may be eligible for exemptions.
Learn more: Guidance for Qualified Lawyers
There are several routes to qualification, depending on where you are currently up to in your studies.
If you have begun your training journey - for instance, you are doing a law degree - you may have a choice to qualify under the old system or through the SQE.
There will be a period of transition which will continue to run alongside the SQE. The transitional arrangements are designed to give as much choice as possible to those who, in most instances by 1 September 2021, are already on their way to becoming a solicitor.
Learn more: Transitional arrangements
If you are an apprentice and have just completed your training or are just starting or are part way through, then you will need to sit the SQE. SQE2 will be your End Point Assessment.
Learn more: Apprentices
Create your personal SQE account and book your assessments.
Find out what happens after passing the SQE and admission to the roll of solicitors.