Roles for the Solicitors Qualifying Exam

In 2018, Kaplan were appointed as the independent assessment organisation for the new Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) launch which will be introduced in 2021. This will be the centralised assessment that all those wishing to qualify as a Solicitor of England and Wales will take, as existing routes to qualification are phased out.

With the design of the new assessment finalised, we are now ready to expand our extended team of legal experts, ahead of delivery of the first assessment in November 2021.

Permanent positions

We are recruiting for talented individuals to join the Kaplan SQE team on a permanent basis. We have roles available for qualified solicitors, a psychometrician as well as customer service and assessment operations positions.

We are looking to recruit the following roles over the next six months:

Psychometrician
Head of Equality and Quality*
Equality and Quality Supervisor
Head of Academic Resources*
Subject Heads*
Welsh speaking Subject Heads*
Operations Manager
Operations Officer
Customer (Candidate) Services Advisors

*These roles require you to be qualified as a Solicitor of England and Wales.

For our current live vacancies, please visit our careers page or contact us at sqe@kaplan.co.uk

Solicitor Examiners

In January we advertised for qualified solicitors to register their interest in being solicitor examiners. Due to the very large number of responses we have closed applications. We are currently reviewing the expressions of interest received and will contact successful individuals in due course to provide more information about being a solicitor examiner before inviting some individuals to a recruitment and information day. Unfortunately, due to the large number of applications received, we cannot invite everyone to these.

For those applicants that indicated that we can hold your details, we may contact you at a future date to invite you to other training and recruitment days. As the SQE develops we expect that we will need to continue to grow our pool of solicitor examiners. Below is information on the different types of solicitor examiner roles.

Assessment / question writers (SQE1)

Question writers for SQE1 create single best answer multiple choice questions. These will test a candidate's ability to apply fundamental legal principles and rules to realistic client-based and ethical problems and situations, across the areas of law contained in the SQE1 assessment specification.

Assessment / question writers (SQE2)

Question writers for SQE2 prepare scenario based questions for the range of written and oral assessment stations in SQE2 - client interview and attendance note/legal analysis, advocacy, legal research, legal writing, legal drafting and case and matter analysis.

Markers (SQE2)

Markers use a detailed marking guide and their professional judgement to mark the written answers to the SQE2 assessments. Markers also attend markers' meetings.

Assessors (SQE2)

Assessors take a leading role on the SQE2 oral assessment days by assessing candidates in their advocacy assessments. Assessors need to be available on the days of the assessment and take part in calibration shortly before the assessment.

All of our examiners are solicitors.

Solicitor examiners work on a casual, ad hoc basis meaning they can pick and choose which dates work best for them.

About Kaplan

We are part of the Kaplan group, one of the world’s largest and most diverse education and assessment providers. We operate in over 30 countries and maintain relationships and partnerships with more than 1,000 school districts, colleges and universities, professional bodies and over 10,000 businesses. Our vast breadth and scope in terms of both capabilities and assets sets us apart.

As an employer, we work hard to make sure this is a great place where everyone has an opportunity to succeed, regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or other belief, marital status, pregnancy or parenthood. If you require any adjustments, or additional support within the recruitment process, please contact us directly and we’ll do our best to help.

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