Greater commerciality and business sense - that’s what recruiters want from their recruits and are what they’ll be assessing right now as they prepare to make training contract offers.

As February draws to a close, and spring is just moments away, let the metaphor of burgeoning life and a fresh new season encourage you to grow your commercial knowledge.

As Black Friday looms (and the proponents of Civilised Saturday attempt to provide an alternative), retailers will be hoping for some big spending, especially in light of news that sales on the UK high street in October were significantly down.

Here is your weekly round-up of big business stories. Keep an eye on these, and others, to hone your commercial skills and make yourself an ever more attractive prospect for recruiters.

What’s on the commercial menu this week?

There's no getting away from the fact that this week the business pages have been dominated by the "will they, won't they" saga of Greece's financial calamities and possible exit from the European Union.

As you might expect, the potential Brexit has dominated news headlines following confirmation that there will be a referendum in June on whether Britain will be staying in the European Union. Implications for businesses of all sizes is one of the key features of the debate - here is just a small selection of this week’s Brexit (and other) stories:

Immerse yourself this week in some quite depressing economic news – of EU budgetary demands, Tesco's massive hole in its profits and increased government spending.

There’s only one story this week: VW. Things have gone badly wrong for the global automotive giant, as it admits that it “totally screwed up” and heads start to roll.

The four-day weekend looms and while it’s hard to imagine doing anything much other than gorging on chocolate and hot cross buns, it’s also an opportunity to catch up on some light reading. 

What better way to round off the week than with a few topical business news stories, collated with the intention of getting you to think about the broader commercial issues that law firms’ clients may be grappling with. No, no – you don’t have to thank us.

Note: it is just over a week until the main training contract application deadline - 31 July - so it is certainly reasonable to be focusing on that right now. 

News-wise, there is a lot to absorb this week, including some big financial losses being reported, as well as bad news for both the “flash crash” trader and the Co-op’s Fairtrade suppliers.

This week, the world’s business leaders, politicians and campaigners gathered in the Swiss ski resort of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum.

Cameron and Carney were full of literary flourish this week, with metaphors that drew parallels with dashboards and apple barrels.

The EU referendum and the implications of a Brexit continue to dominate headlines, along with news from the retail sector.

Another week, another set of business stories to keep on top of. Here are just some that you should lavish your attention on.

The high-level chit-chat taking place between politicians and business leaders in Davos this week at the annual World Economic Forum is expected to cover eight key themes, with delegates looking at robots, gender equality and terrorism.

Want to get a handle on what’s happening in the commercial world and how it might affect your clients of the future? Read this collection of stories from the past couple of weeks to get a glimpse.

Commerciality remains top of many recruiters’ list of ideal traits for their future trainees – where better to develop that skill than with a small collection of topical business news stories, designed to help you to start thinking like a lawyer.