With the end of the academic year approaching, a lot of students may struggle with maintaining motivation and studying for exams. Towards the end of the year, students are more likely to procrastinate, feel a lack of energy or face burnout. So, what’s the solution? Read on for some tips to help you ensure you keep on your best form all the way to the finish line.

From popular messaging app Telegram making changes to its terms of service and privacy policy to petrol prices falling, adverts being banned and cyber-attacks, there’s a bit of everything in this week’s commercial news round-up. Boost your commercial awareness with these weekly articles and head to our Commercial awareness hub, sponsored by Mayer Brown International LLP, for tips and tricks on demonstrating this top skill to your future employers!

Cardiff University has become the latest education provider to be authorised by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) to deliver the vocational component of Bar training from September 2020.

The number of firms adopting contextual recruitment practices is growing, but structural inequality and a lack of representation at senior levels mean that Black candidates still face challenges.

Working class students face disproportionate barriers at university and are dropping out without graduating in increasing numbers, while universities are not doing enough to provide support, new research has revealed.

Looking for an ‘in’? Open days and insight schemes are invaluable opportunities to meet the people that work for the law firms you’re interested in. You’ll learn about life in the organisation, its culture, the work on offer and much more. Plus, if prepped well, it’s your chance to ace that initial interaction, which will set you up nicely for future encounters and could eventually lead to a training contract.

A report by YouGov SixthSense has revealed that students studying in the United Kingdom had a collective debt of almost £20 billion in 2012-13, and are also spending more than their collective incomes.

In September, many students start their new venture into university to study all kinds of different subjects. Preparation before starting a course can help you hit the ground running. I don't just mean buying stationary (although that can most definitely help motivation) but also preparing for the course itself.

This article provides a high-level introduction to commercial awareness, including recommendations of the sources and strategies you can use to build your commercial awareness over time.

Should you use AI in your applications to HFW? How’s the firm adopting the Solicitors Qualifying Exam and what kind of work can you expect to experience on the vacation scheme? All of this and more is covered by HFW’s early careers manager Lucie Rees in this Meet the Recruiter profile.  

TTIP: Dangerous deregulation or a necessary boost to the EU economies?

Join me as I prepare for our final networking event of the year at university! I am discussing the tips that I have learned and picked up on across the years, and discussing what has worked for me! Networking is an extremely valuable skill and one that you should have plenty of opportunity to perfect throughout your time at university. 

Four-day working weeks, football wages, and blue ticks on Instagram and Facebook are among some of the stories we’ve picked out for you in this week’s commercial news round-up. Have a read of our summaries and take a look at our ‘Wrestle with PESTLE’ series for advice and case studies on how you can apply the PESTLE technique to your commercial news analysis. 

From unlikely cinema pairings to surfing on plastic bottles and a social media rebrand, which is more than just a name change, we’re covering a range of commercial news stories this week to help expand your knowledge – so, buckle up and enjoy the ride.  

In 2005 the New Oxford American Dictionary chose the word ‘podcast’ as its word of the year. Clearly enough people had begun creating, listening to and sharing audio content in this format for the word ‘podcast’ to secure this accolade. Nearly 20 years later and, for many, podcasts are a daily part of our lives, with topics ranging from true crime and comedy to influencers and celebrities simply sitting in front of microphones and chatting.

Why is the unionisation of the gaming workforce in the UK so important to businesses?

Looking for an ‘in’? Open days and insight schemes are invaluable opportunities to meet the people that work for the law firms you’re interested in. You’ll learn about life in the organisation, its culture, the work on offer and much more. Plus, if prepped well, it’s your chance to ace that initial interaction to set yourself up nicely for future encounters that could eventually lead to you securing your qualifying work experience (eg, a training contract or apprenticeship).

Retirement, as we know it, is changing. Partly because of advancements in healthcare and humans living longer, but also because of economic necessity, especially as we’re experiencing a fall in real-terms income and the subsequent cost of living crisis. Because of this, we may see more a older people and retirees re-enter the workforce.

There’s another streaming service in town; car sales are back on the up following difficulty in the industry as a result of the pandemic; and a code of practice has been put together to govern researchers’ work on biological models of human embryos. 

Let’s break down the top stories that made headlines in 2023 and consider what you should look out for in 2024.