A total of 2,500 Santander scholarships will be awarded to enhance the digital skills of the university students and eligible professionals taking part in the program.

Applications can be submitted at www.becas-santander.com until 15 March 2020.

Madrid, 13th February 2020
Through Santander Universities, in collaboration with MIT Professional Education, Banco Santander is launching the Santander Scholarships for MIT Professional Education’s Leading Digital Transformation program, in which 2,500 university students and eligible professionals from 14 countries will benefit from specialised  training in digital transformation. 

This scholarship program addresses the challenge of improving the employability of university students and young professionals in a job market that is increasingly dominated by digital technologies. According to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), 35% of employees in OECD countries are in jobs that do not match their skills.   

The Santander Scholarships for MIT Professional Education’s Leading Digital Transformation are aimed at university students in the last two years of their courses or who are studying for a master's or postgraduate degree, and graduates from the last five years from Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the US, Spain, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, the UK and Uruguay. 

In the initial phase, 2,500 students will be selected and will receive five weeks of training, in Spanish and English, focusing on leadership and innovation, digital transformation, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. 

The instructional methodology offers a practical online & blended learning experience that includes collaborative learning case studies, videos,  and other learning material. The program  will give the participants knowledge and skills that they can put into practice immediately. 

Once the first module has been completed, the  highest performing 300 students will go on to the second stage of the training, which will last eight weeks. This stage will focus on three blocks: Blockchain, Cloud & DevOps (Continuous Transformation) and Machine Learning. 

All participants who complete the program successfully will receive an MIT Professional Education block chain enabled certificate of completion. 

Banco Santander will also offer the 30 highest performing participants the opportunity to take part in a selection process for professional internships, with the possibility of joining Santander as an employee.

Javier López, global head of Social Impact at Santander Universities, said that “European Commission reports highlight a digital gap between the competencies of students and what the labor market is looking for. The Bank wants to help university students to improve their digital knowledge so that they are in the best position to take advantage of job opportunities”.

“The lack of sufficient number of people with digital technology backgrounds in the EU and Ibero-America means that thousands of job openings requiring digital training remain unfilled. Our mission is to provide MIT knowledge and experience to professionals globally toward building the skills necessary to lead competently in the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” stated Bhaskar Pant,  executive director, MIT Professional Education.

Candidates can register using this link until 15 March 2020. Full information on Santander Scholarships is available at www.becas-santander.com.

Banco Santander and its commitment to education

Banco Santander is the only European bank in the 2018 'Change the World' ranking of businesses that are helping to make the world a better place (Fortune magazine) through its positive impact on the community, among other metrics. 

Its firm commitment to higher education, articulated through Santander Universities, also distinguished Santander as the company that invests the most in education worldwide (Varkey Report/UNESCO/Fortune 500). This is now one of Santander's hallmarks: it has 1,200 partnership agreements in place with universities and institutions in more than 20 countries and has allocated more than EUR 1,700 million to academic initiatives since 2002. It also provided more than 73,000 university scholarships and grants in 2018 alone, with the aim of helping people, businesses and society prosper.

About MIT Professional Education 

For 70 years, MIT Professional Education has been providing technical professionals worldwide a gateway to renowned MIT research, knowledge and expertise, through advanced education programs designed specifically for them. In addition to industry-focused, two-to-five-day on-campus Short Programs, MIT Professional Education offers professionals the opportunity to take online-blended learning courses and programs through Digital Plus Programs, attend courses abroad through International Programs, enroll in regular MIT academic courses through the Advanced Study Program, or attend Custom Programs, designed specifically for their companies. 

For more information, please visit: https://professional.mit.edu/