Training contracts, the SQE and apprenticeships: choosing your route into the profession
With several ways to qualify as a solicitor now running side by side, the practical choice for aspiring lawyers is less about rules and more about funding, structure and which employer path suits them.
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Why there is now a choice at all
For decades there was one recognised route to becoming a solicitor in England and Wales: a degree or conversion course, the Legal Practice Course, and then a two-year training contract with a firm. That model has been replaced by the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), which sets a common assessment standard but leaves employers much freer to design how candidates get their practical experience. The result is that two people qualifying in the same year may have taken very different paths to get there, and prospective trainees now have to make decisions that didn’t used to exist.
This piece is about those practical choices, not the mechanics of the assessment itself or how qualifying work experience is defined. It is aimed at the decision a candidate or career-changer actually faces: which route, with which employer, funded how.
The traditional training contract still exists in spirit
Large commercial firms, in particular, still run structured graduate programmes that look a lot like the old training contract. Candidates apply years in advance, the firm pays for the qualifying course, provides a salary throughout, and rotates the trainee through several seats in different practice areas before qualification. The label has changed and the assessment underneath it is the SQE, but the employer relationship, timeline and financial security are largely familiar. This route suits people who want certainty: a known firm, a known salary, and a clear structure set out from day one.
The solicitor apprenticeship route
A newer alternative is the solicitor apprenticeship, which lets someone join a firm straight from school or in an existing job and train while working, without taking on the same up-front course fees or giving up years of income. Apprenticeships combine study towards the qualifying assessments with paid employment from the start, usually over several years. This route is particularly relevant for people who cannot afford, or do not want, a long period of unfunded study, and for firms trying to widen access to the profession beyond the traditional graduate pipeline. Details of approved solicitor apprenticeship standards are set nationally and can be checked through the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.
Self-funded and patchwork routes
Because the SQE separates the assessment from any specific course provider or employer, it is also possible to prepare and sit the exams without a training contract at all, funding preparation courses independently and building up qualifying experience through a combination of paid roles, placements, voluntary work or paralegal positions across more than one employer. This is generally the hardest financial route, since candidates cover their own course and exam fees and often piece together experience over a longer period, but it has opened qualification to people who would not previously have been able to compete for a small number of training contract places. Anyone considering this path should budget carefully for course and assessment costs, since these are reviewed periodically by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and are not fixed indefinitely.
What actually differs between routes
The legal end point is the same: everyone has to pass the same centrally set assessments and meet the same character and suitability requirements before admission. What differs is who pays for preparation, whether a salary is provided throughout, how much say the candidate has over which employers or sectors they get exposure to, and how long the whole process takes. A funded graduate programme at a large firm typically offers the most predictable timeline and income but the most competitive entry. An apprenticeship offers earlier financial independence but usually within a single employer for a longer stretch. A self-funded route offers the most flexibility over timing and sector but the least financial support and the most administrative burden on the candidate to track and evidence their own experience.
What to check before committing
Before accepting any offer, candidates should confirm exactly what is being funded, over what period, whether there is a payback or minimum service clause if they leave early, and how the qualifying experience will be documented and signed off. Firms are required to have a confirming solicitor sign off qualifying work experience, so it is worth asking in advance who that will be and how regularly progress is reviewed. Because the assessment structure, fees and specific eligibility requirements are reviewed periodically, applicants should always check current details directly with the regulator rather than relying on older accounts of the training contract system, which no longer reflects how qualification works in practice.