Applying for Professional Skills Course exemptions

Section 3 requires you to enter details of degrees, diplomas and other qualifications you have been awarded.

If you are applying for exemption from the Financial and Business Skills core module you must make sure that you provide certified copies of the: syllabus, module descriptors, award certificate and transcript for the course you have been recently examined on, which covers the same areas as this module.

Section 4 requires you to enter details of other professional qualifications or completed courses. For example, relevant qualifications you have undertaken within your employment. If you are using these to support your application include certified copies of your certificate(s), transcript(s) and module descriptor(s).

We do not grant exemptions based on study you have completed on the CPE/LPC.

Section 5: If you are applying for exemption from the Advocacy and Communications Skills core module, you need to demonstrate experience of both civil and criminal advocacy which should have been gained over a period of five or more years.

If you are applying for exemption from the Client Care and Professional Standards core module, you need to demonstrate work experience in the subject areas, at a suitable level, over a period of eight years or more.

Tell us where you completed your experience (only including those which you are relying on):

• The organisation's name, address and SRA ID (if applicable)
• Job title
• Average number of hours worked per week
• Start and end date in this role
• Supervisor's name, qualification and SRA number (if they have one)
• If your supervisor is not a solicitor, then we need to know their professional qualification.

Section 6 is a key part of your application. You must complete this table.

To grant your application, we must be satisfied that you have achieved all the outcomes listed against each of the core modules you claim.

Before you start to complete this section you must read and understand the Professional Skills Course – Written Standards.

When completing the assessment table:

• set out specific, detailed examples showing how you achieved each outcome 
• specify where you gained your professional experience 
• cross reference your evidential documents to the outcomes 
• update the document index with your evidential documents
• every page must be numbered
• all evidence must be corroborated by references from your supervisor(s) in each period of experience claimed. 

Supporting evidence

While everyone's experience is unique, you must include the following evidence within your application:

• detailed references from your supervisors to corroborate your claim for work experience
• redacted samples of your work 
• certified copies of your syllabus, module descriptors, award certificate and transcript if you are applying for exemption from the Financial and Business Skills module.  

Guidance for referees 

Please make sure that your referee(s) have read this information.

All references must:

• be provided for each period of experience claimed 
• be written for the purposes of this application and be dated within the last 3 months 
• be submitted on letterheaded paper. 

Referees must:

• have read your application and reviewed all supporting evidence before corroborating your experience and confirm that they have done so in their reference. 
• familiarised themselves with the Professional Skills Course – Written Standards and refer to these when providing their reference(s). 
• confirm that they have supervised your work. 
• include examples from their direct observation of you and your work. 

If your referees are not solicitors, ask them for a statement outlining their skills, experience and qualifications.

Find out more information about the Professional Skills Course Written Standards.

It is essential that the document index is completed correctly and uploaded as part of your application.

How to complete the document index

Please makes sure that:

• When you save your documents, and before uploading them to your application, you name each one with the document number at the start. This means that your documents will be uploaded in the order that you have chosen (see example below)
• there are no spaces in any part of the document name
• the same document numbers are entered in section 6 of your application in the final column headed - Evidence to support your application.

Here is an example of a completed document index.

We suggest that you complete the index as you progress through the application. Please make sure that each piece of evidence is included in the final index.

The number of lines is not an indication of the volume of documents you need to send. It is for you to decide on what you think is relevant to show your work knowledge. You may continue on a separate sheet if necessary.

How we use your document index

This index will be used by your caseworker and the assessor as part of their assessment of your application. They will cross reference your evidence to each of the outcomes, so clear alignment is vital.

We may not accept your application if this index is not included with your evidence, or not completed correctly.