There has been a tendency in recent years for the training of new solicitors to slip out of the control of current practitioners into the hands of other and sometimes expensive agencies and this is an important and even vital initiative by the Scottish Law Agents Society to re-assert a strong and exclusive relationship between current practitioners and the training of future solicitors and also to retain the costs of that training as far as possible within the profession rather than to contribute those costs to the business plans of outside agencies
The Professional Competence Course (PCC) has, for several years past, been prescribed by the Law Society of Scotland as an essential part of the training for qualification as a solicitor and every trainee solicitor must undertake a duly approved PCC programme during the traineeship. It is a substantial programme which consists of about 54 hours of practical training contact across a range of about a dozen or so subject areas or modules and is likely to cost approximately £1,200 to £1,500 and involve about two weeks absence from traineeship, often split into two or more separate absences. The course is delivered mainly at the LLB universities although some of the larger firms are able to deliver the PCC to their trainees via an in house programme. Now, however, the Scottish Law Agents Society proposes to make the PCC available throughout the country in as close as possible an equivalent to the in house facility which is available to the larger firms. In doing so, we hope to reduce the costs of the PCC and also to minimise the disruption to the traineeship and, as far as possible, to involve the training firms in the production and delivery of the PCC programme.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The Council of the Scottish Law Agents Society fully adopts the general aims for the PCC programme as stated by the Law Society and would wish to incorporate those aims within our Society’s own view of the appropriate objectives which are currently stated as follows:-
1. The provision of the highest quality of training for future members of the profession.
2. To inculcate the highest level of ethical awareness and conduct.
3. To stimulate and maintain a strong and direct relationship between current practitioners and the training of future practitioners.
4. To establish a training input by practitioners in order to maintain a balance with the academic education undertaken by prospective solicitors.
5. To minimise the financial costs of the PCC to practitioners and to minimise also the interruption to the ongoing traineeship programme.
However, you, as a training partner, are invited to suggest what general or specific objectives should be declared and pursued in the Society’s policy for education and training.
DELIVERY AND COST
Initially, the Society proposes to deliver the PCC programme mainly within accommodation at Glasgow Caledonian University in the City Centre of Glasgow but with some of the delivery provided at the premises of the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow and possibly also at Glasgow Sheriff Court. We understand that those trainee solicitors who have to travel to Glasgow and obtain accommodation there for the purposes of undertaking the PCC programme may be entitled to receive financial assistance for these expenses from the Law Society. Which brings us to the costs of the PCC. The Society proposes to deliver the whole of the PCC programme including all core and elective subject areas and all papers at a cost of £900 per trainee. In addition, we propose to deliver the whole course, including elective subjects, within a single ten day period. We understand that our proposed costs are about one third less than most of the alternative courses and that our proposed duration compares very favourably with the alternatives on the market.
