Peter Liver, Chief Operations Director at The College of Legal Practice
Peter Liver, Chief Operations Director, shares his views on what sets The College of Legal Practice [1] apart from the other legal education providers.
Yes, we are very happy to be seen in the alternative box! We like doing things differently, and in fact the College has gone to great efforts to start our SQE training design from a blank sheet of paper, with no LPC baggage and expensive campuses, and focus on what all students really need to succeed in passing the SQE. With a not-for-profit approach we will continue to pass on as much value as we can. We can’t simply seek to maintain the norm which means many great students and young professionals can’t afford to progress their careers in the legal profession. We are often asked how we can charge what we do for our training. My response is to ask the other providers how they can justify their charges.
One of our main goals as an organisation is to facilitate access to the profession, this desire to support everyone to progress their career runs through everything we do, not just one-off schemes that sit on the side of our application process. We don’t offer one off discounts and incentives etc rather we have passed on as much value as we can to all those who want to train with us.
Here are several ways in which we help every legal professional achieve their unique potential.
Expert individual supervision
The College takes an individual supervision approach across all our programmes. We recognise that everyone is different and particular for those who lack confidence, networks, and other support, providing individual support is invaluable in giving them the encouragement and reflection that they need to perform at the best of their abilities. Our individual supervision and support is very highly rated by our students and is one of if not the most comprehensive on the market. People still do matter when it comes to virtual learning.
Highly flexible virtual learning design and timetable
Our learning design focuses on making it easy and accessible for the learner, every practice area is broken down again into sub-units, and each unit has a very simple learning structure that step-by-step builds students’ knowledge and abilities in a measured way towards full SQE mock assessments.
Moreover, much of our learning can be completed at time that suits the student and can consider their work and life pressures and circumstances. We have a range of courses that suit different people depending on their needs. For example, we have a new mum who recently took our SQE1 prep course, alongside other busy working legal professionals. Live sessions are recorded, and supervisors don’t work just 9-5. So, as long as the students keep to the weekly deadlines and submissions, we are happy with them learning at a time that suits them.
We will give every student the best chance of passing the SQE
Our supervisors are on it! They will advise students where they are in their performance against where they need to be to pass the SQE. Towards the end of the course, supervisors reflect with every student individually on their progress through an SQE Ready Review. This review is prior to the booking window closing for the assessment and gives the students crucial information and advice as to whether to progress to the assessment for that sitting. It gives them the opportunity to consider pushing the assessment back by 3 or 6 months if need be, for more study time, and could save them valuable time and money. We then continue to offer support to students until they are ready to take the assessments and for their first retake if required. We are not just interested in getting as many students onto our courses. We want each student to feel they have a personalised experience with us.
We actively seek and support students who are under-represented in the legal profession or face barriers to progression
The College is still young, and our approach to diversity and inclusion is developing all the time. So far, we are very keen to encourage any students to consider us, who may have additional learning requirements, lack confidence due to barriers they have faced in their lives, or just don’t feel that they fit the traditional lawyer profile.
We have already supported students with visual impairments, learning difficulties, older students, and those from lots of different ethnic groups. We offer scholarship schemes and partnerships with firms that can help us achieve our goals in this area. We don’t just sponsor awards rather we really do want to support individuals that otherwise wouldn’t have an opportunity to join our profession.
Lastly, I’m enjoying the privilege of working for this organisation, and the staff within it, who are passionate and deeply committed to what we are trying to achieve and also proud to be seen as different from the rest.