Today we’re talking with Patricia Birkdale, Early Careers Business Partner at Capsticks, one of our partner organisations. Capsticks have moved to the SQE early and have taken a robust approach to qualifying work experience (QWE), alongside working with the College of Legal Practice’s SQE training.
In this article, Trish shares Capsticks’ approach, particularly with a view of offering an example of best practice for organisations new to QWE and the SQE, with additional thoughts from our CEO, Giles Proctor.
Please note quotations are from Patricia, unless clearly stated that they are from Giles.
Setting things up
“We are still relatively new on our SQE journey and started sponsoring the first candidates on this pathway in 2023. We have a number of our cohort qualifying in September, and a few more in March 2025.
When we moved to the SQE, we knew we’d need a robust approach with clear parameters to signing off QWE. We started with a written, Capsticks branded, comprehensive QWE policy, alongside a branded QWE document. We used the template from the SRA as a basis for this. We made this template available via our intranet, so that all those involved in QWE sign offs and regulation had a clear understanding of our company expectations and where we’re working from. As this is still a new policy, we’re continually tweaking it in conjunction with HR to ensure it is fit for purpose.”
A candidate-led approach to tracking
Giles points out two key elements of a good approach to tracking QWE. Firstly, he says, it’s about “looking at the SRA statement of solicitor competence very closely, as good practice involves employers sitting down and making sure candidates have the right sort of experience to facilitate that.” Secondly, he explains that “alongside this is making sure the employee is recording the QWE from the beginning. The SRA has a template for this to monitor the experience, and a space to assess against competencies”.
Capsticks facilitate these elements really well in their approach.
“As a People First firm, we prioritise development and growth to ensure Motivated Teams. This is the same for qualified staff, paralegals and trainees. In the case of QWE, responsibility always sits with the candidate to collect good evidence of their QWE using our internal tracker, alongside using our performance management platform, which details all the solicitor competencies they should be working towards. We expect candidates to track their feedback and work against the competencies throughout. This really comes in to play most when it’s time to sign off QWE.
When a candidate is ready to get their QWE confirmed, their individual supervisor then uses their tracker and performance platform evidence to assess that they’ve met all the required competencies, that the duration is correct, and there are no suitability issues. This approval is then sent to our training principal to keep all tracking streamlined.
For those who are looking to get QWE signed off retrospectively, having worked with us in the past three years, things do get a little trickier. The challenge sometimes comes because the original supervisor that a candidate has worked with, has left the firm, so can’t vouch for them. This is where our performance management platform becomes integral, and why we expect all our paralegals, regardless of their intention to qualify, to keep a robust check on their development in case of future requests. In the absence of a previous supervisor, we can look through a candidate’s performance on our system, while HR will track back which team they were in in order to see if any remaining employees can vouch for the candidate instead. We’ve not yet had an issue here, as our paralegals hold a lot of responsibility at Capsticks and the likelihood is that they will have met competencies if they’ve worked in this role with us in the past.”
Guiding supervisors
“Our consistent, clear approach is not just for the candidate - it ensures our supervisors are clear on what they are required to do. We also created a guidance document for supervisors which outlines the solicitor competencies, as these do differ from the previous training competencies that were used for the LPC. We want this to be crystal clear because the expectations are higher for SQE candidates. On completion of the SQE and sign off of QWE, we want a day one solicitor, not a day one trainee.”
Why we chose this approach
“Our culture across the entire firm is to keep Motivated Teams by encouraging everyone to thrive and achieve personal growth, so the SQE and QWE is no different. We make it clear that in all stages of a person’s career with Capsticks, it’s in your interest to keep track of your work and performance over time. Because of this, we’ve found QWE sign off has been fairly quick and straightforward.”
Our CEO, Giles, agreed that this is a good method of delivering QWE, noting that the flexibility of the SQE means there’s room for innovation: “there’s a lot of flexibility with this new scheme, and with that flex comes a lot of innovation.”
Keen to learn more?
Keen to learn more about qualifying work experience? Head to our QWE Hub.