The winter intake of the Practice Readiness Education Program (PREP) will launch on Monday, December 1, 2020, to students in Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. Before registration officially opens we wanted to share a few things that students will need to know when registering for the program.

1. Registration opens Monday, October 5, 2020, at 10 a.m. MT at www.cpled.ca – the entire registration process is completed online. Registration is completed on an individual basis so if firms are registering for their students, they will need to do so one student at a time.

2. Admission Requirements – Proof of a Canadian common law degree or Certificate of Qualification from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. Students are required to self-declare their degree and/or certificate completion date during the registration process and upload their documentation to gain access to program materials. For more information about the accepted forms of documentation, visit admission requirements.

3. Articling – In direct response to concerns from students and the legal profession related to the unprecedented global COVID-19 pandemic we made changes to our admission requirements for the June and December 2020 intakes of PREP to allow students to register and complete PREP without secured articles. For more information about the admission requirement change, visit the latest news post.

Students who have secured an articling position will need to include the details of their position (start date, name, and location of their firm as well as the name of their principal and their contact information) when registering for PREP.

4. Law Society subsidy – Students must register as a student member with one of CPLED’s participating law societies to be eligible for their law society subsidy. PREP is the official Bar admission program for Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. Remember to verify Bar admission requirements with your law society before registering for a program.

5. Program delivery – PREP consists of four distinct phases and is scheduled to be delivered both online and at face-to-face sessions. However, we continue to monitor and follow the recommendations of local government and public health agencies for all CPLED jurisdictions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. As the situation is continually evolving we are committed to making the best decisions possible with the information we have at the time. Face-to-face sessions may be moved to an online delivery if it is required to ensure the safety of our students, facilitators, assessors, and staff. We will provide our stakeholders with information as it becomes available.

In the first phase of PREP, the Foundation Modules are self-directed online study and offer a flexible start date where students can choose to begin anytime between December 1 and January 4 but must complete the phase by Tuesday, April 13. Phase two, Foundation Workshops are held over five consecutive days and hosted in-person or online in May 2021. Phase three, Virtual Law Firm takes the students back online where they will manage multiple aspects of a legal file throughout its lifecycle. The Capstone, the final assessment in PREP will be held over four consecutive days in September of 2021 and will be hosted in-person or online. During registration students will select one of the two schedules available for phases two and four which will be offered in Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Regina/Saskatoon and Winnipeg, space permitting. For more details about program delivery, visit PREP.

6. Payment information – PREP tuition fee payments can be made via online bill payment, EFT and wire transfer. Credit cards, cheques and e-Transfers are not accepted. Once registration has been completed individuals can print off a copy of their invoice and submit it to their firm’s accounting department for payment. As registration is completed on an individual basis, the invoice for tuition fees will also be on an individual basis. CPLED will not be able to combine invoices for students articling at the same firm, however, the firm can choose to make one payment and apply it to multiple invoices. For more details visit, payment information.

7. PREP launches Monday, December 1, 2020 – Students will only receive access to the PREP Foundation Modules, once they have completed the online Student Enrolment Checklist, their tuition fee payment has been processed and they have completed their Procertas requirement.

8. Registration closes on Friday, November 20, 2020 – Registration deadlines are set to ensure there is sufficient time to process student applications, establish cohorts, and recruit individuals such as Facilitators, Assessors, and Practice Managers to support students throughout PREP. That being said, we understand that situations may arise that may prevent a student from registering by the deadline, and because of this, we created  a Policy regarding Late Registration. We will review late registration applicants on a case-by-case basis as we want to set all students up for success in PREP, for all of the details on late registration refer to the policy.