CILEx/City & Guilds Legal Secretaries Diploma Level 2

General information

CILEx (Chartered Institute of Legal Executives) is very well recognised as a leader in the legal sector and City & Guilds is extremely well established as a provider of excellent vocational courses. This well established and respected secretarial diploma course provides students with the specific knowledge and skills to work in a solicitor’s office or any legal environment, as well as providing excellent transferable skills to work in any office as a secretary or administrator. The course specifically addresses the production of a wide range of specialist legal documents such as Wills, Divorce Petitions and Affidavits, and familiarises students with the use of legal terminology. IT skills are an integral part of the course. Students will learn to use Microsoft Office programmes, including word processing, databases and spreadsheets, and students are also familiarised with Case Management systems. The essential skills of proofreading, audio and touch typing are taught as well as the necessary administrative skills, such as effective communications, client care, time management, team working, stock control, managing mail, health and safety, filing and the roles of legal personnel. The core of the delivery is to ensure students gain employability skills and well recognised qualifications. To this end the qualifications on the course are designed to provide students with a wide range of business as well as administrative skills. In preparing students for work we provide CV workshops and training in interview skills. The course is run by an established team of staff who have successfully delivered the course for several years. Throughout the course students have the additional support of an allocated Personal Tutor who is there to smooth the journey through the year to facilitate a successful outcome for our learners.

One of our City & Guilds Level 2 Diploma for Legal Secretaries adult learners recently won a City & Guilds Medal for Excellence. Read her story here.

Course content

This course includes:

• Legal Word Processing
• Touch typing and audio typing skills
• Proofreading
• Working in the Legal Environment
• Legal Information Processing
• OCR Text Production Business Professional Certificate
• Functional English

Teaching and assessment

Assessment varies depending on the Module. Some modules are externally examined while for others, students complete externally set assignment based tasks. At the end of the course City & Guilds moderate the assignments.

Entry requirements

A minimum of 4 GCSE A*- C with a minimum C in English. At interview, candidates will be required to sit internal course specific tests.

Progression

Successful students can consider progressing to the Level 3 Diploma for Legal Secretaries or business courses. Some students may wish to progress to employment in a legal secretarial or administrative role, or to an Apprenticeship programme.

Dates and times

This course starts in September and is run for three days a week until July. The duration of the course is one academic year.