“So, what are you going to do when you graduate?”

I had always considered a career in law and in the summer of my second year I completed a work experience placement at a criminal law firm and had a summer job as a noting junior at a Crown Court trial. After completing this placement I decided that despite it being extremely interesting, it wasn’t a career I was suited to. I therefore decided to look at the completely opposite side of the legal spectrum, corporate and commercial law. From my experience, depending on who you are, corporate and commercial law either has a really good reputation or a really bad one; either a well-paid, well-respected career or selling your soul (and your social life) for your job, or training contract at this stage.

So in the autumn of my final year I wasn’t convinced enough to apply for a Training Contract straight away. Subsequently thinking about it I also probably didn’t have a strong enough application. However, I wasn’t utterly put off so I attended a careers presentation run by Travers Smith LLP, a city law firm. The evening was structured with a presentation followed by drinks and canapés with graduate recruitment partners and trainees from the firm. After the event I decided to apply for a vacation scheme to find out more about the firm. I applied for the summer vacation scheme (due to being on the University ski tour during the winter scheme.) It is usually the case that winter schemes are predominately for non-law students and the summer scheme for law students, but my experience was definitely that they are fairly flexible. I was invited for an interview and I think it tends to be the case that interviews change drastically depending on the firm, but mine was very much something I couldn’t prepare for. It was testing your ability to think on your feet, construct a logical and persuasive argument and to not be flustered by the unknown questions.

“It was testing your ability to think on your feet, construct a logical and persuasive argument and to not be flustered by the unknown questions.”

That is also a reason for doing vacation schemes; the application process is less rigorous than for a training contract. Although this is probably because the whole two-week process is designed to test you far more than an interview could. I quickly realised that there is no point being worried that you are constantly being tested because they know exactly what they are looking for and you either fit that bill or not. It would be too hard work to spend 2 weeks pretending to be something you’re not, let alone the length of your entire career.

The two weeks were very well structured and organised and allowed me to meet a lot of people and see a lot of the firm’s work. I sat in two different departments, a week in each. I sat in employment and commercial. Having the opportunity to do tasks in a department, similar to those of a trainee gave me an insight into the legal industry that it would be impossible to get from Google searching. As well as having individual tasks to complete, we also had to participate in group activities. We did a mock negotiation, presentations and a Dragons Den style challenge where each team was given a scenario and had to create a business. All of the tasks were challenging but also fairly enjoyable.

“Having the opportunity to do tasks in a department, similar to those of a trainee gave me an insight into the legal industry that it would be impossible to get from Google searching.”

I’m sure it is common knowledge that vacation schemes also have a large social aspect and mine certainly did. We had the opportunity to attend a 3-course lunch with graduate recruitment partners in the client dining room as well as a pool/table football tournament, an evening at Ping Pong the new table tennis bar and a day tour of the city of London. Not only were these events enjoyable but they also provided a great opportunity to meet fellow vac-schemers and trainees, but did make it a tiring week!

“Before I completed the vacation scheme I thought most law firms were ‘all the same’ but I do think that in fact their cultures are very different”

Before I completed the vacation scheme I thought most law firms were ‘all the same’ but I do think that in fact their cultures are very different and it’s definitely worth taking the time to see this properly before applying for a Training Contract. Overall, it was both an enjoyable and insightful experience that I would thoroughly recommend.

1) What the most unexpected question was that she was asked in the interview?

I was asked ‘What makes you angry?’ which was a bit of a surprise. Again, I think it is a case that as long as you don’t panic and think out loud, explaining why you feel the way you do they don’t mind what the answer is (as long as it isn’t completely ridiculous.)

2) A piece of advice she got from a trainee she talked with.

That everyone is only human. It is really easy to feel overwhelmed and daunted by partners at the firm, but a trainee told me to just remember you can relate to them as you would anyone else. It helped me feel a lot more relaxed and confident.

3) Describe the culture of the firm in 5 words or less:

I would say hardworking, friendly and competitive.

4) What surprised you most about the firm when she spent time there?

What surprised me most was how much access we had as vac-schemers to partners. I sat in a room with a trainee, an associate and a partner and there were frequently graduate recruitment partners at the social events. We also had a Q&A session with the managing partner at the firm. This really gave the impression that everyone in the firm was approachable and it was small enough that all employees knew you.

5) Having completed a vacation scheme – what is your next CV building move?

I decided that a law career wasn’t what I was most suited to so I am currently employed in the Department for Education/Department Business, Skills and Innovation at the Civil Service.

1) Picture perfect. People like putting a face to a name, and this particularly applies to LinkedIn. To personalise your account you need to have a profile picture but more importantly this picture needs to represent you in the right way. Ensure you look professional and smart but make sure you are smiling to indicate your friendly nature. No one wants to connect with your passport photo.

2) Sum it up. LinkedIn allows you to provide a brief summary of yourself and this is a great way for you to maximise the opportunity for potential employers to find you amongst their searches. Outline your current position, what you are interested in and should you be openly searching for jobs, this is the place to advertise it. However, be sure to maintain professionalism. If your current employer isn’t aware that you are looking to move on, don’t broadcast it.

3) Be open to connections. LinkedIn specifies that you should only connect with individuals that you know on a personal level. However, abiding by this limits your network. Within reason, be open-minded to connecting with new people as they could be potential employers, headhunters or someone in the role that you are after. You never know how your connections could help you and remember a lot of the time it’s not what you know, it’s whom you know.

4) Elaborate. LinkedIn is ultimately an online platform for your CV so it is essential to include all of your previous employment and relevant experiences. For a more engaging profile however, you should list the responsibilities you held in your previous jobs as well as the tangible outcomes you achieved to demonstrate your employability. Warning: be sure to respect any confidentiality agreements you have signed.

5) Give praise where praise is due. LinkedIn recommendations are a great way to boost your profile. They show your professionalism, skills and experience as well as providing an eye-opener into what you are like to work with. In order to receive recommendations you should be willing to recommend others but be honest with your praise and don’t feel pressured to paint an inaccurate picture of an individual.

6) Group together. Joining relevant groups is a great way to extend your LinkedIn network and meet people who may be able to help further your career. Join your University group, your degree discipline group, the group for your career field and any groups to do with your interests and expertise. Not only can this help widen your network but it could also increase the likelihood of recruiters finding your profile.

7) Activity leads to engagement. Like Facebook, the more you post, comment and like things on your LinkedIn newsfeed the more interesting your account is. Look to post relevant articles from your profile and comment under other peoples posts in order to show your interest and facilitate discussion. The more active you are the more you will get out of your profile.

8) Keep in the loop. If you are thinking about changing jobs, your career or taking up new opportunities, following companies and organisations that you are interested in is your way forward. Most companies are vigilant to keep their LinkedIn profiles up to date with their recent news and particularly job vacancies so this is a great place for you to be in the know about any developments.

9) Don’t be a stranger. Whilst generally social media stalking is considered to be taboo, the tables are turned with LinkedIn. LinkedIn gives you the option to remain anonymous so that people can’t see when you have viewed their profile but it’s a good idea to reveal your identity. This could mean for example that when you are looking at the profile of the managing director of the company you want to work for, they are directly notified of your interest and may remember your profile when they read your CV or application.

10) Showcase your skills. List your skills and expertise and reorder them according to importance. In terms of endorsements, the more you have, the more professional your profile will look. Take the same approach as with recommendations and endorse others frequently for skills, which you genuinely believe they have demonstrated and in return you should see endorsements flooding in.

photo credit: greyweed via photopin cc

Our editor Milly caught up with Alex Fishlock, a member of the team that participated in this programme, who has been working for an enterprise called ReMaterials.

How did you get involved with SPARK?

I got involved with the programme after hearing a speech from Lottie Pearce, ex-president of Enactus Southampton, at a committee meeting. She told us about how we could spend 4 weeks India gaining real business experience by helping to solve some challenges faced by the social enterprises. Being a management student this really appealed to me, as did a month in India! I filled in an application form, which was reviewed by the Spark India team, and was told a few weeks later that I had got onto the program.

How is ReMaterials making a positive social impact with its business? What key challenges are they overcoming?

ReMaterials is all about tackling social causes through innovation. The team were using agricultural waste and packaging found on the streets such as cardboard, together with natural ingredients such as coconut fibres, to manufacture a new roofing material. Not only does this help to clean up excess waste (which attracts stray dogs and disease), but the material also provides slum inhabitants with a strong, insulating, waterproof and modular roofing material, which is much cheaper than some of the alternatives. There are 2 main challenges – the first is to make sure that the roof is actually waterproof (the team was testing this when I was there). The second is to make the product affordable to potential customers by partnering with micro-finance institutions, as most the potential customers live in the slums and are financially deprived.

What stage was the business at prior to your visit? Are they in the start-up phase or more well established?

The enterprise is actually well established, having partnered with Berkeley University some time ago. But I’d say that in July, this particular product, the roofing material, was just starting up because it was still in the testing stage.

In basic terms what is their business model?

For other items, the enterprise would sell direct to the customer. However, the roofing material didn’t have a business model in place because it was at the early stages of testing. The proposed model which my team researched would involve micro-finance institutions loaning customers money to make the purchase, with the customer then paying back installments to these financial companies across a long period of time. In theory this would avoid unmanageable debt because the last thing we want to do was to put these people further into poverty.

How did you first get involved in the business when you arrived? What was your role?

When I arrived I met up with Hasit, ReMaterial’s founder, for breakfast along with one of my colleagues and some of the ReMaterials team. We discussed the enterprise and what our challenges would be. Over the next week or so, my team (4 students from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and myself) visited the factory and did some basic research. We needed to find out if microfinance was the best financial strategy and if so, which organisations to partner with. I was elected project leader, so my role was to coordinate the different tasks, set deadlines and to do as much research as possible.

What responsibilities did your team take on together?

Overall we were responsible for recommending a financial strategy to the ReMaterials team. This involved getting in touch with local and global microfinance institutions, seeing if they would partner with the enterprise, conducting customer surveys and then pitching our findings.

What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome whilst you were in India?

Aside from a case of Delhi belly, I’d say the communication barrier. The students and lecturers spoke great English, but it was a struggle talking to the financial companies. In the end I would have to research the companies to contact, whilst my colleagues would actually phone them up! It didn’t help that I only know 2 words of Hindi – ‘nay’ which no means and ‘Namaste’ which means hello!

In your opinion, how does business in India compare with your experiences of business in the UK?

I don’t know whether it’s because of the difference in size of India compared to the UK, but I noticed that there were allot more people with their own businesses or who are self-employed – it really is the entrepreneurial heart of the world. There’s allot more haggling, not just in the markets frequented by tourists, but all over the country. One thing that my colleagues and I realised is that there are many NGO’s and social enterprises in the UK where helping a social cause is the primary aim. As such any profit is donated to tackle that cause. However, in India, the primary aim for social enterprises is to operate as a business, where any surplus is not donated but reinvested into the venture. The business models are the same as private enterprises. The only difference is that the work they are doing may be related to a social cause (such as creating roofing materials made from waste).

What were the key insights about business you took away from the experience?

Perhaps it was because of the marginalized segment of the population we were working with, but I learnt that even for a new and unique product, price is everything. Despite the roofing material being modular and insulating (which is rare in India), potential customers were only interested in how much the roof would cost. Any other features aside from being strong and waterproof were irrelevant. People work extremely hard for their money and most won’t spend it unnecessarily. I guess that there is so much competition (product imitation and lack of differentiation) that price is the only factor that counts when making a purchase.

Do you feel that you developed any key transferable skills?

I learnt how to work effectively in an international team – everyone has different ideas and it’s great to hear people’s opinions. I found that by sitting down, everyone together, we would often spark off one another and generate ideas that working alone we would never have thought of. I also developed my presentation skills – I really learnt that you’ve got to engage and involve the audience to keep their attention. After all, a presentation is not a lecture and if it was it would certainly be less effective in communicating information.

How do you think this experience will prepare you for working in business in the future?

I gained experience of coordinating a team, project management, working to deadlines and of persuading people to form a partnership to make the product commercially viable – I think these are all experiences which employers are looking for and which help to tackle problems faced by businesses.

What is your advice for other young professionals looking to participate in something similar?

I would say it is very rewarding – in the UK you can take part in internships and placements which is great and often lead to employment, but I believe showing the motivation to do a placement abroad is invaluable. It might help to differentiate you from others as placements abroad are less common, and there’s more to talk about in an interview. Working in an international team prepares you for working overseas, in that you experience different cultures and learn to communicate more effectively. I think that employers like that. So if anyone gets the opportunity to do something similar, voluntary or paid, I can’t recommend it enough!

You can find Alex here: 

2) Power of 3 – focus on no more than three main USP’s. You want your audience to come away from your proposal with a clear understanding of your key points. If you bombard your audience with 20 reasons to support you then they will leave struggling to remember point 1 to 19.

3) Tell your story – avoid pitching a mind numbingly boring pitch, which is both predictable and no different from the 10 others your audience has heard that week. Tell your story to create a memorable connection with your audience so they can see where they fit into the bigger picture. Also, you don’t have to tell them you’re passionate and dedicated – they will understand that from your story.

4) Make sure you recap as you go along. Your audience is not unintelligent but like most human beings they will appreciate you recapping and coherently linking consecutive points together so the presentation flows and is more memorable. It is accepted that the human brain can’t hold more that 7 chunks of information (Miller 1956) in the short term memory at once so summarising as you go will chunk important points together & stay in the minds of your investors better.

5) Sell yourself. Fear not, this isn’t about to be a cliché point about being a likeable person. Okay actually it is but it is more important to appreciate why this is crucial. It doesn’t matter how fantastic your idea is if no one wants to work with you. You know those people that seem to have all the luck even though you have the better ideas. Well these people are the ones who charismatically charm their audience into wanting to work with them whatever the proposal is. Your proposal cannot be a success without you so you are part of the package. You are the investment.

The fact that you are preparing a proposal for a business idea or product/service venture means you are already part of the way there. Having the courage to stand up in front of an audience and sell yourself and your idea is to be applauded. Even if you don’t make it the first time, keep trying because WD40 wasn’t called that because it’s a catchy product name, it’s called that because they got it right on attempt number 40.

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“management aren’t in touch and don’t know how it is for us”

If you have a business that promotes talent from within or a good graduate program, management will know what it is like on the shop floor because in the wider sense it doesn’t change that much and they have seen or done that job. However the business environment, internal politics, business performances etc does change and it shapes the environment that the managers operate in. So if you find yourself saying “management aren’t in touch and don’t know how it is for us” take a moment to acquaint yourself with the bigger picture, ask some good questions and then see if you still think management is out of touch. If they are, then work out the best way to bring them up to speed.

“the business environment, internal politics, business performances…shapes the environment that the managers operate in”

They may not thank you but they will appreciate it and who knows you might get considered for promotion a little earlier than expected.

The Management Tour Guide is an experienced manager with an MBA who has helped to build an international consumer goods brand.  MTG has been hired over the phone, asked to leave in person, been head hunted and passed over on many occasions.  MTG has worked on start ups, wind downs and lost causes as well as successful businesses.  It all counts when it comes to gaining experience.

photo credit: Alex E. Proimos via photopin cc

We compiled the 5 things the ultimate team player does so you can understand their ways and adopt them. So next time you’re in a team situation you can be that ultimate team player.

1. Take one for the team – even when an idea doesn’t work out perfectly the ultimate team player sticks up for that team member that worked really hard but couldn’t quite make the project work. Standing up for the person that is usually treated as scapegoat when things don’t go well will earn you respect and in the long run and loyalty from those around you.

2. Credit where credit is due – whilst it may be tempting to keep a slightly bigger slice of the glory for yourself. The ultimate team player shares how good Mike in IT was when you came to him with a problem and how Sandra from the other office had that great idea when you were chatting at lunch. People respect those who respect others. + You earn points for utilising the expertise of others in the workplace – it’s a leadership skill required to move you up the ladder into more senior positions.

3. You may be leading the team but that means you’re part of the team. The detached leader that delegates from afar but doesn’t know their team well &/or their team doesn’t feel comfortable coming to their leader for guidance creates a poor team environment. Team members can feel undervalued and fearful of thinking outside the box in problem solving if their isn’t the support of a leader present. You don’t want people who play it safe. You want a team who are confident in innovating.

4. Don’t leave anyone on the bench. Everyone has value in a team and sometimes it’s harder for shy people to put themselves forward and share what their strengths are when delegating. A good team player not only knows his strengths but he knows the strengths of others too. If you recognise a colleagues value they will feel more confident to recognise it in themselves & this positive cycle creates a more confident, proactive team.

5. Celebrate the victories and the failures. A good team player sees a problem as a challenge to overcome, and success as a team win. Reflecting with the whole team on project outcomes – positive and negative – in a constructive way creates a stronger team unit when value is created in the lessons and experiences shared. If a group has a culture of being open to talk about failures as well as successes, colleagues will feel more comfortable talking openly about challenges they’re facing as the project is being run. Creating a safe zone free from blame and negative criticism allows better cooperation and potential challenges to be overcome quicker if people don’t feel like they have to quietly fix it before anyone else notices.

Do a good deed today and share this with the person you think is worthy of the title of ultimate team player

#teamGYE

1. The Dow Jones had its biggest one-­‐day fall of the year on Thursday. Investors are concerned about this economic growth warning. Do you think the Eurozone could be going back into recession – arguably before it has made a full recovery?

In the Eurozone the threat of another recession is a matter of location, location, location. Germany, the economic powerhouse of Europe, stalled   earlier this year. Apart from the normal “the sky is falling” angst in public discourse, most people noticed nothing. The people in Greece, Italy and Spain still wish they enjoyed that kind of buffer.

2. Do you think the job market will be/is being impacted upon by these economic fall­‐backs?

Again, the impact of economic fall-backs is mitigated by where you live in the Eurozone to a vast degree. Unemployment remains relatively low and steady here in Northern Europe, while youth joblessness along the Mediterranean remains at terribly high levels. I don’t see that changing much in 2015.

3. Should global young professionals be concerned?

Definitely. No one is an island in the world anymore. What happens to your neighbour, your colleagues or other nations on other continents influences the way you live more than ever before. It is in everyone’s interest for everyone to do well.

4. Could this situation affect those entering the work place or those who have just embarked on their career? Is job security likely to be an issue?

Studies show people starting their career during a recession will earn less than those who first go to work in a bullish economic environment. I get the impression that young workers are very worried about job security and therefore, don’t dare to push the issue of benefits or work-personal life balance.

5. There has been a downgrade of growth prospects for Italy, France and Germany according to the IMF, which undoubtedly will affect other Eurozone countries.     In your opinion, what effect is this having on the job market and job security     specifically in Germany?

It could mean a “big yawn” is about to engulf those country’s labour markets. By that I mean a lacklustre desire to hire and grow businesses because external factors seem too great to offset with business as usual. Hiring freezes are inevitable.

6. There has been talk of the Ukraine Crisis being a driver of the economic slowdown in Germany, do you agree & why?

I think the fear of German exporters losing the Russian market due to a geopolitical crisis is justified. That said, when was the last time you heard about contracts or orders dropping? It feels as if those sanctions have not bitten Germany as initially feared. (But I wouldn’t throw a party in 2015!)

7. What do you think are other influential factors in the current decline of the German economy?

Is there a real decline in the German economy? Consumers don’t seem to notice one, yet. I believe the strict austerity of Berlin will have lasting negative consequences on German GDP. The country risks saving itself “kaputt” and starving all projects that drive growth and expansion.

8. Do you see Germany’s current economic situation improving soon?

I see 2015 as a year of more uncertainty. Watch export figures in the first and second quarter. That’s key to any educated guess about the near future.

9. What advice would you give young professionals that are entering/ have recently entered the European job market?

As I learned in the US, prepare yourself mentally and financially for numerous job changes, city changes and career switches. This isn’t your father’s factory/office anymore. The one thing that will be constant in your working life: nonstop change.

A. It’s true – It all started with a can of worms! Ben, our founder at AskHerFriends once bought a girlfriend a worm farm for her birthday…but they broke up not long after. He always felt like he struggled with choosing gifts for women, mainly because there was too much choice, despite his attempts to find the perfect thing. This got him thinking about the best ways to find the perfect gift.

Q. Tell us about AskHerFriends – what is the business all about?

A. The key to AskHerFriends is that we focus on the lifestyle preferences and style choice of the recipiant, so we bring together a really wide range of gifts from experts across the whole retail and service industry so that you can be guaranteed to find the right thing for her. From hampers to holidays and chocolate to proposal experts. We’ve got lots of innovative gifting ideas, and if you get stuck you can use our Idea Map where we ask you a few questions and we come up with some suggestions.

Q. How did you initially go about setting up AskHerFriends? Did you have to secure investment and if so how did you do this?

A. At first, AskHerFriends began as a site with a collection of ideas and you’d have to then visit the retailers own site to physically buy them. Nowadays, everything is available on our site itself and we’ve invested in the technology and the algorithms behind our Idea Map to ensure it comes up with the right suggestions. We sought investment via the tax relief SEIS scheme and presented the reasons why we were so keen to make impact within the gifting arena.

Q. What were your tactics for gathering support for AskHerFriends and which approach has been the most successful?

A. If you’re passionate about something, it’s always easier to wax lyrical about it to friends and everyone you meet. Essentially, we are a gifting marketplace and we have picked the sellers we work with based on them being gifting experts and really nice people. Our sellers and partnerships have supported us from the start and we’re really lucky to work with such a lovely bunch of people.

Q. Are your customers mainly UK based or have you acquired a global customer base? If so what was your strategy for achieving this?

A. At the moment, we’re just despatching to UK addresses, but we’ll expand internationally next year.

Q. For you, what has been the greatest achievement for AskHerFriends so far?

A. We actively seek customer reviews and feedback because it’s always really interesting to see how we can improve our offering. Our greatest moments are when customers visit, go through our Idea Map, buy a few things they wouldn’t ordinarily have thought of and then get in touch to say they were really pleased with the gift they’ve chosen. That type of feedback makes our day and all the effort worthwhile!

Q. What have been the main challenges you have faced in setting your business up and how did you overcome them?

A. In the very early days, when we were just getting the tech and platform built, it was really hard to communicate our vision for the future of AskHerFriends to show potential sellers and partnerships in view of them coming on-board – but we presented our ideas clearly to them face to face and haven’t looked back since.

Q. A lot of start-ups struggle to achieve their potential, what would you say has been the key to your start-up success?

A. Stick to you morals and consistently ask for people’s feedback.

Q. We see that there is an AskHisFriends on the cards! When is this likely to be live?

A. We’re excited about it too! Everyone is telling us that guys are even more difficult to buy for so we look forward to launching AskHisFriends next year and providing the full picture.

Q. What would be your top tip for success for any young entrepreneurs wishing to begin their start-up journey?

A. Do your research, meet as many other start-ups and people as possible and don’t be lonely! We worked and collaborated a lot in the early days with other start-ups in co-working spaces and went to lots of MeetUp events!

If you’re struggling to choose your office secret santa present this year check out Global Young Executive’s top 6 secret santa picks from AskHerFriends!

This month has proven to be particularly fruitful for the US, economic wise. The world’s largest economy expanded by 3.9pc during the third quarter due to increased spending from businesses and consumers. Not only has this proved the US economy to be far stronger than predicted but also with the previous quarter marking a 4.6pc growth rate this has been the strongest 6-month period for the US in more than a decade.

What does this mean for the US and the global economy? Well, with the dampening disarray of the global economy, this news demonstrates the US as a glimmer of hope for our fiscal future. With Japan moving back into recession and the growth of China and Europe grinding to a halt the superpower is evidently clawing back its economic status. Moreover, this 6-month stint of economic growth has led to predictions that the short-term interest rate level will be on the rise by mid-2015.

Google dabble in ad-free Internet 

Ads are popping up all over the internet and are often the source of many users frustration. With the heavy price tags attached to online advertising it is no wonder that the internet is largely funded by advertising. However, Google have been experimenting with ways to change the status quo. The introduction of Contributor is an attempt to directly support the people who create the sites that we visit. With this new approach users will pay a monthly fee in order to access a number of ad-free sites and a portion of that fee will go to Google and the other portion to the website.

This seems like an ingenious idea to combat the woes of advertising and a handful of websites have already signed up including WikiHow, Mashable and Imgur. However, it is perhaps worth questioning the viability and longevity of Contributor as a similar service called Readability was previously initiated but was shut down in 2012. Essentially, the majority of internet users are irritated by online advertising, but are they really prepared to pay for the privilege of ad-free internet?

Poverty problems predicted for the young and employed

A recent report compiled for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has outlined that there has been a significant surge in pensioner poverty during the last few years. This same report, constructed by the New Policy Institute has also outlined that there has been a growth in the number of under 25s who are suffering from poverty conditions.

Whilst admittedly, poverty levels are at their lowest since the 1980s the increasing amount of zero-hour contracts and low-paid employment has meant that around two-thirds of people who are in work are paid less than the living wage. Salaries have dropped for both men and women and the average self-employed person earns 13% less than they did five years ago. This has led Julia Unvin, Chief Executive of the JRF to outline that ‘a comprehensive strategy is needed to tackle poverty in the UK.’

Immigration target is unlikely to be met

Home Secretary, Theresa May has indicated that the UK is unlikely to meet its target for reducing immigration. May has blamed EU migration for blowing the Tories off course from cutting net migration to the tens of thousands before the next election. In the Home Secretary’s opinion Britain’s strengthening economy has played a significant role in the increasing numbers of people coming over to the UK from across Europe. With the ever-increasing challenge to satisfy the Eurosceptic Tory MPs, this news will inevitably open up many more challenges for Cameron and the coalition.

Nuclear talks with Iran have been extended to the end of June

The US, UK, Russia, China, France and Germany have been negotiating with Iran to finalise a preliminary deal which was agreed upon last year in Geneva. The six countries have now agreed to an extension of their discussions, as there were still significant points of disagreement. The intention of these talks is to convince Iran to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions.

Whilst under the terms of international treaties it is legal for countries to develop nuclear energy, the International Atomic Energy Agency does not believe Tehran to be complying with this permitted nuclear activity. The countries will meet again in December and extent their agreement deadline until 1 March 2015.

O2 is on the cards for BT

It has been revealed that Telecoms giant BT is in preliminary talks with Telefonica about buying the O2 mobile network from the Spanish firm. This has raised interest particularly due to the irony surrounding this that BT would effectively be buying back a business that they had previously owned. Back in 2005 Telefonica acquired O2 for £17.7bn. However, it is currently only valued at around £9-9.6bn.

Whilst this acquisition is still in very early stages should it come to fruition we would see the creation of a communications giant covering fixed-line phone, broadband, mobile and TV. Currently, BT has about a third of the home broadband market and research has suggested that customers increasingly want to buy their fixed-line and mobile services from one company. Thus, the acquisition of a mobile provider could be highly profitable for the Telecoms giant. Furthermore, it has been reported that EE is also looking for a UK buy-out. With EE holding 33.8% of the UK mobile market as opposed to O2’s 26.2% this places BT firmly in the driving seat of any potential acquisition.

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