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“It will be a pain to have to store these placements all on different bits of paper so we want to give you the opportunity to have one easy place to store it all”

Sophie Gould, Head of Learning and Development

Track your Qualifying Work Experience

The SQE Journal: a free QWE tracking tool

Our SQE Journal is a market-leading digital tool that makes recording and supervising Qualifying Work Experience significantly easier. It's entirely free to use and we hope it will help aspiring solicitors from historically under-represented backgrounds break into the legal industry.

When accruing your Qualifying Work Experience under the SQE, you can work in up to 4 different places, over 2 years. All your experience has to relate to the SRA’s statement of solicitor competence and be confirmed by a solicitor. Obviously, that is a lot of competencies to cross check and confirmations to manage. Flex Legal's SQE Journal allows you to record your experience, manage approvals, and track your progress online against the SRA’s framework, in one centralised location.

BUILD

Organise and track your work

  • Build a journal to send to Solicitor for confirmation. Add entries for pieces of work.
  • Track your hours and your progress against the SRA competency framework.
  • Live updates on each entry, journal, supervisor and organisation.
grow

Reflect on your experience

  • Answer reflective learning questions for each entry.
  • Receive supervisor and Solicitor feedback for each entry and journal.
  • Start building your personal growth plans.
CONFIRM

Be SRA ready

  • Submit finished journals to your Solicitor for confirmation.
  • Compulsory SRA requirements included in confirmation process for Solicitors.
  • Maintain an audit-proof record of all accepted and rejected journals.
How to get confirmation

Supervisor and Solicitor view

To be able to submit Qualifying Work Experience to the SRA as part of the SQE qualification it must first be confirmed by a solicitor qualified in England and Wales. SQE candidates collecting QWE through the SQE Journal create "journals" for placements at a single organisations, and will document individual pieces of experience into "journal entries". To approve a journal entry you do not need to be a qualified solicitor, but should be the direct supervisor of the experience. Once a candidate has had all entries within a journal approved, the full journal will then be sent to a qualified solicitor (this may also be you) for confirmation, and these are the details that will be passed on to the SRA.

Review

View and approve entries

  • Be notified of candidates seeking journal review.
  • View and approve your candidate's experience and progress in easily-accessible reflective journal entires.
  • Manage multiple SQE journals from different candidates in one centralised location.
Comment

Give professional feedback

  • Supervisors can provide feedback on specific pieces of work.
  • Solicitors can provide comments on finished candidate journals.
  • Request changes to entries.
Confirm

Be SRA ready

  • Confirm finished journals from candidates.
  • Give SRA required detail.
  • Maintain an audit-proof record of all approved and declined SQE journals.
solicitors qualification exam

What counts as Qualifying Work Experience?

Part of the SQE will involve you having to do at least 2 years equivalent of Qualifying Work Experience ("QWE"). This work can be completed in up to four organisations and is your opportunity to develop the core competencies and skills required as a solicitor.

QWE is real life legal experience (not simulated) that helps you attain some or all of the competencies set out in the statement of solicitor competence. This could include:

  • Undergraduate degree placements
  • Volunteering at a Law Clinic
  • Paralegal work
  • Training contracts
  • Paid or unpaid internships
  • In-house or law firm work
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Qualifying Work Experience FAQs