CRAIG SMITH: My name’s Craig Smith, I’m the unit coordinator for the Criminal Law elective and the Employment Law elective on the Legal Practice course.

I think it’s unique for the very reason that we are so focused on what happens after they complete this course, we gear the way that we teach, we gear the way that we interact with students, so as to prepare them for what they will face in practice.

They are able to move directly from this course to becoming admitted as solicitors, many of our graduates move into mainstream Law firms, small, medium and large Law firms in Brisbane, throughout Australia and overseas, others of our graduates go into Government departments and work as in house council.

We have such a strong focus on what students require both academically and personally to be able to succeed in this industry.

SAMANTHA FLYNN: My name is Samantha Flynn, I have graduated in 2009 from a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws and I am currently completing my Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice.

So I decided to Legal Practice because it’s a requirement to be admitted in Queensland, however I think the bonus is you actually get to practice it whilst studying as well, and then what you do in Legal Practice translates to what you do in work.

My lecturer was a barrister, and he was able to say, ‘Well when you get into court this is what you need to do, and this is how you need to act,’ and that was great, I thought, because you’re not, you actually know that these people are doing what you want to do.

MATTHEW HICKEY: My name’s Matthew Hickey.

I’m a barrister and I graduated Bachelor of Laws and Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice.

The Graduate Diploma is a professional prerequisite; you can’t practice unless you’ve done this particular type of course in one way or another.

What was particularly attractive to me about the course at QUT was that in the fulltime mode, as I undertook it, you can acquire a degree of practical skill in a very quick, short burst, and so for people, particularly mature-age students who are transitioning from one career to another, it represents a really quick and effective way of equipping yourself for the next steps.

The course here was not so much all about sitting in a lecture hall full of, you know, hundreds of other people furiously scribing notes, but actually participating, doing things, getting on your feet, pretending to do the sorts of things you’ll ultimately do when you graduate.

You get really good training, caring training, you know, you get taught lawyer’s skills in a way that means you can make mistakes and work out where your deficiencies are and try to fix them up before you foist yourself on the world, and I think that’s a really useful opportunity.

It really is lawyering with a safety net, you get to do all the things that you would do if you were in a proper lawyer’s office, but if you muck it up nobody gets sued.