GUIDANCE NOTES FOR LEGAL PRACTICE COURSE APPLICATION FORM
Providing Institutions
Click here for a list of Institutions (with links to Institutions' own web sites) validated to provide a full-time Legal Practice Course and participating in the CAB System for 2010-11 Courses. Details of any Institution's Course may, of course, also be obtained by contacting the Institution direct.
A list of Institutions providing other types of Legal Practice courses, e.g. part-time, distance learning, etc., is available on the Solicitors Regulation Authority's (SRA) web site at www.sra.org.uk/students/lpc.page Applications for part-time Courses should be made direct to the providing Institutions.
Admission to Courses
- Each Institution selects those applicants to whom it wishes to offer places. Please note that the role of the CAB is to provide a centralised applications system to participating Institutions. The CAB has no role in the admission processes of individual Institutions.
- Applications for full-time courses are only accepted through the CAB: applications must not be sent direct to the Institutions.
Course Fees and Charges
- Each Institution will notify those applicants to whom it offers places of that Institution's relevant fees and charges for 2010/2011. Course fees do not include those payable to The Solicitors Regulation Authority for enrolment.
- If in doubt as to whether you will be classified as a or overseas student, please contact the Institution(s) at which you plan to attend the course.
COMPLETING THE APPLICATION FORM
If you have any disability, special need or medical condition, e.g. you are blind or partially sighted, which either affects your ability to complete, or totally prevents you from completing, this application form, please contact the CAB on 01483 301282 for assistance.
To be considered in the initial selection, offer and acceptance process the online application form, including the must have been received by the CAB by Tuesday 1st December 2009.
GENERAL NOTES We aim to make the form as self explanatory as possible and there are notes on the form which give additional explanations where it was thought necessary.
These guidance notes provide some additional comments on each section.
Whilst completing the online form you can refer to these guidance notes by clicking on the link on the left hand side of the page. This will open a new window.
After you have completed each page you are required to save it before continuing to the next page. If you have not completed any of the mandatory fields (marked with a *) these will be highlighted and must be completed before you can move on to the next page.
You can log out of the site part way through completion of the form and come back to it, using your login ID, if necessary.
If you would like further advice on completing the form please ask your Careers Advisory Officer or the CAB. Please note that Institutions do not under normal circumstances interview applicants, and that the success or otherwise of an application will therefore be based on the quality of the applicant as evidenced by the completed application form.
When you submit the application form, you agree that the CAB and its member Institutions can process your information and keep a copy of your form to collect statistics, and to detect and prevent fraud. Institutions you have applied to may contact you to invite you to open days or other events which relate to the course you have applied for. They may also contact you if they have any queries about your application.
The Data Protection Act allows you to ask us for a copy of your application.
SECTION A: DETAILS OF APPLICANT
"Correspondence address" means your term-time address if you are currently at University or College. "Home address" means your permanent/family/parental address.
All communications from the CAB will be sent to your correspondence address. LPC-providing Institutions considering your application may use whichever address they feel to be appropriate at the time.
If after submitting your application you change your contact details, please notify the CAB immediately in writing giving both former and new names/addresses, otherwise important correspondence from an Institution considering your application might not reach you. The postal address can be found on the home page of this website.
Institutions making offers to certain applicants born outside the or EU are required to gather additional information about the applicants to meet the UK Borders Agency requirements relating to student visas. This is not an area which CAB can advise but for more information please refer to the UK Borders Agency website www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/studyingintheuk/ .
Disabilities, special needs and medical conditions
Institutions providing LPC are committed to helping students with disabilities, special needs and medical conditions. In order to enable Institutions to provide the best available support for you they need to know about the nature of your disability, special need or medical condition and how it might affect your studies.
If you have a disability, special need or medical condition you should contact the Institutions you wish to apply to now to discuss any support needs.
(a) & (b) Disability/Special Need/Medical Condition
Please select from the drop down list of statements which is most appropriate to you, and expand upon any needs you might have in the space provided. The information you provide will not affect judgements concerning your academic suitability for a course, and will be treated confidentially by the Institutions. However, it will enable data to be collected from which the progress of equal opportunities for students with disabilities, special needs and medical conditions can be monitored.
Disability, special needs and medical condition codes:
0. None.
1. You have a specific learning difficulty (for example dyslexia).
2. You are blind or partially sighted.
3. You are deaf or hard of hearing.
4. You use a wheelchair or have mobility difficulties.
5. You have Autistic Spectrum disorder or Asperger Syndrome.
6. You have mental health difficulties.
7. You have a disability that cannot be seen, eg diabetes, epilepsy or heart condition.
8. You have two or more of the above.
9. You have a disability, special need or medical condition that is not listed above.
SECTION B: LEGAL PRACTICE COURSE TEACHING INSTITUTIONS
Choice of Institution(s): Please indicate in order of preference up to three Institutions (see list of all full-time LPC providing Institutions) at which you would be prepared to accept a place.
Certain Institutions offer a choice of locations in which to study. If you select one of these institutions please indicate in order of preference the centres at which you would be prepared to accept a place in the appropriate drop-down list(s)
Reasons for Choice of Teaching Institution(s): If there are special reasons governing your choice of teaching Institutions set out in (A) above, please tick the appropriate box or boxes provided, particularly if they preclude you from accepting a place at any other Institution.
Please do not expand your answer beyond the space provided; additional information, if required, will be sought by the relevant teaching Institution(s). The Institution(s) may ask you to supply supporting evidence.
Fees: This information is required so that the Institution at which you obtain a place can issue invoices and other payment requests.
SECTION C: MEANS OF COMPLETION OF THE ACADEMIC STAGE OF TRAINING
All applicants must have completed the academic stage of training, i.e. have received the results of any relevant Examinations (please refer to the Solicitors Regulation Authority's Requirements and the need to obtain the appropriate certificate) before the course starts. Please indicate how you have or will have done so.
In the boxes in (a), (b)(i) and (b)(ii) referring to full-time, part-time, distance learning or external, full-time and part-time relate to attendance at an Institution whose own examination you sat, whilst external relates to preparation, whether by attendance or other means, through one Institution for the examination of another.
SECTION D (c)
Other qualifications, e.g. Teacher, Doctor, Accountant, etc.
SECTION E: EMPLOYMENT
You must answer Yes or No at the top of each section before you can either access the greyed out sections or continue to the next section of the form.
Legal Employment. This can include work in a local authority or company legal department, in the Magistrates Courts Service, or in similar occupations. References will not be taken up under this section without your permission first being sought.
SECTION F: OTHER INFORMATION
Further Personal Information. This section should be used to provide the following information:
General Attainment(s) and other supporting comments. If you have some general attainments (not necessarily academic) to which you wish to draw attention, please set them out. Please do not repeat matters, which you have included elsewhere on the form. If you have any further comments you wish to make in support of your application, please set them out here.
Future career aspirations. What are your present intentions in respect of your future career?
You are automatically limited to 3000 characters, including spaces, in completing this section. There is a counter on the form which shows you how many characters you have remaining. The form will allow you to cut and paste your statement from Word.
SECTION G: REFEREES
A reference must be provided. A suitable referee would be a tutor, Professor, etc., who taught or is teaching you during your most recent degree, postgraduate and/or professional course, or, for mature students, an employer (not being a relation) if an academic would no longer be appropriate. Friends and relations are not normally regarded as suitable referees.
Mature Students: If you were awarded your degree before 2005 and feel that a tutor's assessment would on its own no longer be appropriate, or if you are applying as a mature student under Regulation 10(1)(iii) of The Law Society's Training Regulations 1990 (as amended), you may as an alternative or in addition to the tutor's assessment provide an assessment of your suitability for the course from, for example, your employer (not being a relation). However, you should try to obtain a reference from a person with first hand knowledge of your academic ability.
Please ensure that you allow sufficient time for your referee to complete the reference before the closing date of Tuesday 1st December 2009 if you wish your application to be considered in the initial selection, offer and acceptance process.
Your nominated referee will be contacted by email once you have submitted your application. They will be asked to log into the referees section of the website to add their comments. If we do not get a response from them you will be contacted weekly for 3 weeks so that you are aware of the situation. If they have still not responded you will be contacted and asked to nominate another Referee.
SECTION H: DECLARATION
Once you have completed the form you are required to recheck each page and then tick the declaration box.
Your application will then be submitted, you will be emailed a copy of your application and your referee will be contacted.
If you do not receive the email copy of the form please contact CAB to confirm that your form has been accepted.
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