Pre-application judicial education programme (PAJE)
Judge-led workshop series and resources
The PAJE programme is designed to give you direct insight into the skills involved in becoming a judge.
PAJE has been developed by the Judicial Diversity Forum to support lawyers from groups under-represented in the judiciary from ethnic minority lawyers, women lawyers, and all lawyers with disabilities are prioritised in the selection process.
The PAJE judge-led workshop series
PAJE is primarily a course in judgecraft, rather than completing an application. By the end of the course participants will have a deeper understanding of the work of a judge, and the qualities sought in judicial applicants.
“The judge had a wealth of knowledge and was extremely engaging- really great!”
“It has given me a lot more confidence to apply for judicial appointment in the future”
PAJE Delegates, 2019
Apply to join the next course
Applications are currently open for the Winter/Spring 2024 courses. The deadline to apply is 11:59pm on Monday 12th February 2024.
We recommend all prospective judicial candidates consider the programme based on our judgecraft syllabus.
For more information, please call 020 7611 4690 or email [email protected] for any enquiries.
- The judge-led PAJE workshops consists of 4 2-hour discussion groups covering content in Judgecraft, Judicial Ethics, and Equality & Diversity. Read the syllabus.
- Judge-led courses will be administered by one of the three professional bodies (The Law Society, the Bar Council or the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx). Participants at each course will be a mix of barristers, solicitors and legal executives.
- The course will take between 4 to 8 weeks to complete with groups run either weekly or fortnightly.
- Participants are expected to attend all 4 discussion groups in order to complete the course.
- The course will be run across England & Wales.
PAJE resources
The following open resources have been created by the judicial college to provide an introduction to becoming a judge.
Other options available to support a judicial application
Judicial Office runs a shadowing programme. See the Judicial Careers Portal for more details.