PgDip Solicitors Qualifying Examination

at University of Bolton

The PgDip SQE will be delivered using a wide range of materials, all designed to give you the very best start. These will include e-lectures, face-to-face workshops and the chance to learn and develop your skills within the University’s Legal Advice Centre. Core textbooks and guided learning materials will support your studies.

This course will prepare you to take the SRA’s centralised SQE assessments at an external test centre. Initially, teaching and learning will focus on the SQE1 assessments. These two multiple-choice question papers will test your Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK), including ethics and professional conduct. Using realistic client-based scenarios and ethical problems and situations, these exams will assess your application of law in the following areas:
 

FLK1 – Business Law and Practice; Dispute Resolution; Contract; Tort; Legal System of England and Wales; Constitutional and Administrative Law and EU Law and Legal Services.
 

FLK 2 – Property Practice; Wills and the Administration of Estates; Solicitors Accounts; Land Law; Trusts; Criminal Law and Practice.
 

Our expert team will also support you to learn the practical skills required to pass the SQE2 legal skills assessments. You'll be tested for the six professional legal skills: interviewing, advocacy (known as SQE2 oral), case and matter analysis, legal research, legal drafting and legal writing (known as SQE2 written). These assessments will also test your negotiation, ethics and professionalism.
 

SQE2 is conducted in the context of five legal practice areas: business law, civil litigation, criminal litigation, property practice, and wills and the administration of estates.
 

Our team will support you as you learn and revise all the knowledge and skills required. We’ll also help you gain postgraduate level study and lifelong learning skills.
 

Modules

The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.

• Applied Legal Practice - FLK1
• Applied Legal Practice - FLK2
• Applied Legal Practice - SQE2

• You should have at least a lower second class honours degree (2:2) in law or another relevant subject (or a comparable qualification from a UK or overseas institution).
• If you don’t possess the above qualifications but have substantial managerial or employment experience equivalent to a degree, we’ll be happy to consider your application. Decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis and be dependent on experience and interview.
• You may be required to attend an interview and/or provide a portfolio of work.
• If English isn’t your first language, you’ll also need IELTS 7.0 with normally no less than 6.5 in any band (or equivalent). 

Overseas students starting this course in the first year will be required to pay a Overseas fee of £12,600

Graduates can use the qualification as a stepping-stone into a range of other careers. For some of these roles, relevant experience or postgraduate study may be required. They include:

• Immigration
• Police
• Trading standards
• Investment banking
• Tax advice/inspection
• Teaching and education
• International aid/development
• Human resources
• Health and safety
• Probation/social work
• Accountancy
• Political research
• Charity and advice work
• Recruitment
• Stockbroker
• Marketing