Jane Waddell, head of curriculum design and development at The College of Legal Practice, discusses her move from City law firm partner to legal education, and how law students should approach the SQE
“The attraction was a more flexible work-life balance — I was ready to do something different,” says Jane Waddell, head of curriculum design and development at The College of Legal Practice (CoLP). Having spent 17 years in practice including as a partner at City firms Eversheds Sutherland and TLT before making the move into legal education, Waddell emphasises the surprising parallels between the two. “Advising clients isn’t all that different to teaching students actually, because you’re always having to think ahead to determine what the student (or the client) needs to know moving forwards,” she explains.
What does she enjoy most about her role? “All of it!” she replies. “It’s lovely being involved in something right from the beginning. “I’ve been involved in building courses from the ground up, such as The College of Legal Practice’s Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) preparation courses,” she says. “It’s not often you get the chance to start with a completely blank sheet, because usually people in a role like mine inherit an existing curriculum to work on. Being able to design a course from scratch is really exciting and has given us the opportunity at the College to create a course that points towards the future”.
With a fully online offering designed for the SQE back in 2021, Waddell tells Legal Cheek Careers that the law school has been able to set up and design their SQE courses with flexibility and modernity in mind. “Everyone learns differently. By building a curriculum from scratch, we’ve been able to take account of the different ways that students learn, whether that’s visual, audio or kinaesthetic (learning by doing),” she begins. Through mini-lectures and transcripts, workshops and reading materials, she emphasises that the CoLP’s SQE courses integrate materials for all learning types.
“We also test our students at each stage, which is absolutely key to ensuring their success on the exams. This really lends itself to the online-learning format that the College provides,” she explains, “through enabling students to digitally access multiple choice questions (MCQs) and online activities.”
Embedding the core knowledge required by the challenging SQE exams isn’t the only focus of the law school’s course, Waddell explains. “All of the SQE is — simply put — about applying the law. Students need to learn the material first, and then practice how to apply it to a real-life scenario.” Digging deeper into how the College implements this practical learning on its SQE prep courses, Waddell explains that it’s all about expertise. “A unique selling point of the College is that we employ solicitors as supervisors on the course,” she says. “Having qualified lawyers, who can also teach to a high standard, tutoring our students gives them a much deeper understanding of the application of legal doctrine.” Waddell likens this to a board game. “You can learn the rules but then you have to learn how to apply them in order to succeed”.
Ahead of speaking at Legal Cheek’s event, ‘What to consider before starting the SQE’ on 31 July, we ask Waddell why students need to make certain considerations before embarking on this qualification path. “Firstly for SQE1, students have a lot to learn, as there are thirteen practice areas,” she begins. “Therefore, they need to manage their time carefully. So, my advice is to work out what mode of study works for you and over what time scale.” Admitting that some students can be overly optimistic about how much material they can cover, Waddell suggests that those embarking on the SQE should approach time planning mindfully. “Sit down and work out when you’re going to study alongside your other commitments, then choose a course which works for you,” she says. “If you work during your studies, think carefully about the length of the course you choose, to save you from imploding!”
Indeed, it’s no misnomer that this ‘new’ route to qualification is not for the faint of heart, but Waddell assures us that CoLP can steer their students to success. “We’ve written these courses from scratch, and therefore all our attention and focus is on preparing our students for the exams from the very foundation. Our curriculum was very carefully designed and polished with success in mind, without having to follow an existing LPC-style structure, and with thousands of practice MCQs running through every unit of the SQE1 prep course,” she says. “Further, approaching the SQE with a strong support system in place is essential, so we’ve implemented a lot of one-to-ones with supervisors. This helps our students to step back and get support not just on the content and materials of the course, but also to help them understand revision and study techniques which suit them individually”.
Giving her advice for those taking the SQE, Waddell emphasises that students should aim to have a good understanding of what they’re getting into beforehand. “Work out how you study best, work out your other commitments and think carefully about how much time you’ve got to study,” she says. “Then prepare: prep prep prep! There’s no magic bullet; it’s not rocket science. It’s all about preparing”.
Jane Waddell will be speaking at ‘What to consider before starting the SQE — with The College of Legal Practice’, a virtual student event taking place on Wednesday 31st July. Apply now to attend.
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