Qualifying work experience (QWE) explained

Qualifying work experience, or QWE, is the practical-experience requirement you need alongside SQE1 and SQE2 to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales. In short: two years of full-time equivalent legal work, gained in up to four different organisations, confirmed at the end by a solicitor or a Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (a COLP).

That's the whole rule in one paragraph. The rest of this post covers the parts people actually get stuck on: what counts, how the timing works, and how sign-off happens.

The two-year rule, unpacked

QWE has to add up to two years of full-time equivalent experience. The SRA doesn't fix an exact hours figure for "full-time," it leaves that to a common-sense reading, but a full-time week is commonly taken as around 35 hours, so that's roughly what "two years" means in practice.

Two important words there: full-time equivalent. You don't need to work two calendar years in a row at full pace. Part-time work counts too, it just takes longer to accumulate the same total hours. Someone working three days a week, for example, will need proportionally longer to bank two years' worth of experience than someone working five.

That flexibility is one of the biggest differences from the old training contract system, which was a fixed two-year block with one employer. QWE is measured in cumulative hours and experience, not in a single continuous placement.

It doesn't need to be continuous

You can gain QWE in stages, with breaks in between, and it doesn't have to happen after you finish your degree. Work experience from before you started thinking seriously about the SQE can still count, as long as it meets the requirements and someone is able to confirm it at the end.

That means a placement during a law degree, a paralegal role you took straight after graduating, and a stint at a different firm two years later could, in principle, all add up toward the same two-year total. The SRA doesn't require QWE to be recent or unbroken, only that it's real legal work that develops the right competencies.

Up to four organisations, not four jobs

You can gain QWE across a maximum of four different organisations. This is often misread as "four jobs," but it's about legal employers or work placements, not job titles within the same organisation.

If you move roles within the same firm, that still counts as one organisation for QWE purposes. If you split your two years between a high-street firm, an in-house legal team, a law clinic, and a City firm, that's four organisations, which is the maximum allowed.

This cap exists so the SRA can maintain some consistency in verifying experience, while still letting candidates who didn't land one long training contract build a qualifying record from a mix of roles: paralegal work, voluntary law clinic work, in-house placements, and similar.

What counts as qualifying work experience

QWE is broader than the old training contract in another important way: it doesn't have to come from a law firm.

Legal work experience gained in a law clinic, an in-house legal team, a local authority legal department, or even certain voluntary and pro bono settings can count, provided it genuinely involves legal work and develops the competencies solicitors need. What won't count is work with no meaningful legal content, even inside a law firm, such as purely administrative tasks.

Because the assessment of "does this count" sits with the person confirming it, keep a clear record as you go: what you worked on, roughly how many hours, and which competencies it touched on. Check the SRA's current QWE guidance if you're weighing up whether a specific role would qualify.

How sign-off works

At the end of your QWE, a solicitor or a COLP needs to confirm that your experience meets the SRA's requirements. This doesn't need to be a partner at a big firm, and it doesn't need to be the same person for the whole two years.

In practice, this means the solicitor or COLP reviews the work you did, confirms it developed the competencies the SRA expects of a newly qualified solicitor, and signs a formal confirmation as part of your application.

If you gained QWE across multiple organisations, you may need confirmation covering each stretch of experience, not just one blanket sign-off at the end. This is another reason to keep your own notes along the way rather than trying to reconstruct two years of work from memory when it's time to apply.

QWE and the SQE can run at the same time

There's no set order between QWE and the SQE. You can complete QWE before, during, or after sitting SQE1 and SQE2, and many candidates do some combination of working and studying at once out of necessity.

A common pattern is paralegal or similar legal work during the day, with SQE study happening around it, evenings and weekends. That's workable, but it needs a realistic study plan rather than an assumption that revision will "fit in" around a full-time job. A free SQE study planner can help map study hours against a working schedule so the two don't quietly cannibalise each other.

Most candidates either finish QWE and then focus on the SQE, sit the SQE first and pick up QWE afterward, or interleave both over a longer stretch. None of these is wrong. What matters is that SQE1, SQE2, and two years of QWE are all met, alongside the SRA's character and suitability requirement, before you apply for admission.

Who is exempt

If you're already a qualified lawyer in another jurisdiction, you may be exempt from the QWE requirement, depending on your existing qualification and experience. This is assessed case by case by the SRA rather than granted automatically, so it's worth checking your specific situation against the SRA's current guidance rather than assuming either way applies to you.

How QWE fits into the bigger SQE picture

QWE is one of the core requirements for qualifying as a solicitor under the SQE route, alongside passing SQE1, passing SQE2, and meeting the SRA's character and suitability requirement. It has no fixed order relative to the exams and no fixed cost of its own, since it's paid work (or, in some cases, unpaid or voluntary experience), not a course you book and pay for.

If you're mapping out costs and timing for the whole route, the SQE costs breakdown and the SQE dates posts cover the exam side, and the pass rates post is useful context for the assessment side. QWE sits alongside all of that as the practical-experience leg of the stool.

Frequently asked questions

What is qualifying work experience (QWE)?

QWE is the practical legal work experience requirement for qualifying as a solicitor under the SQE route. It requires two years of full-time equivalent legal work, gained in up to four organisations, confirmed by a solicitor or COLP at the end.

How many hours is two years of QWE?

The SRA doesn't publish a fixed hours figure for "full-time," it's assessed on a common-sense basis rather than a strict total. A full-time week is commonly taken as around 35 hours, so two years full-time equivalent is usually measured against that rough weekly figure. Part-time work counts too, it just takes longer to reach the same overall total.

Can QWE be from more than one job?

Yes, up to four different organisations. Moving roles within the same organisation still counts as one organisation for this purpose.

Do I need a training contract to get QWE?

No. QWE replaced the training contract as the practical-experience route under the SQE. It can be gained through paralegal work, in-house placements, law clinics, and other qualifying legal work, not only through a formal training contract.

Can I do QWE and study for the SQE at the same time?

Yes, there's no required order. Many candidates work while studying, which is workable with a realistic weekly study plan rather than an assumption that revision will fit around a job on its own.

Who signs off QWE?

A solicitor or a Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP) confirms that your experience meets the SRA's requirements, as part of your application for admission. If you gained QWE across multiple organisations, you may need confirmation for each part.

The QWE rule is more flexible than it first sounds: no fixed employer, no fixed order relative to the exams, and credit for part-time and varied roles. The main discipline it asks of you is record-keeping, so that whoever signs off your experience at the end can actually see what you did and when.