The institution will extend access to its scholarships to students and professionals of any age in order to provide more opportunities, help them refocus their careers or further their professional training. 

Santander is looking this year at programmes focused on increasing people's employability and driving lifelong learning. 

Madrid, 24 January 2021.
Santander Universities has decided to refocus its 2021 scholarships programme, broadening the profile and age range for accessing them and paying special attention to new market needs in order to enhance and increase people's employability and drive lifelong learning as a key factor in academic and professional development.

According to the World Economic Forum 2020, 85 million jobs will become obsolete within five years’ time due to automation, but 97 million new roles adapted to a professional co-existence with machines and algorithms will also be generated. 

In this context, Banco Santander is adding two further concepts to its scholarship programmes for students and young professionals and part of its initiatives will be structured around them: 

• Reskilling: helping participants acquire new knowledge and skills in different areas, enhancing their professional versatility and increasing their options for refocusing their career.
• Upskilling: providing training in both professional and personal transversal skills to drive more efficient adaptation to current roles at a time of deep transformation and digitalisation within companies.

Through these new options in its programme for backing education in the different countries where it operates, Banco Santander is strengthening its global commitment to equal opportunities, employability and progress for people in a world where learning, continuous reskilling and the ability to adapt will be essential for improving job perspectives, developing professionally and gaining the skills needed to find new opportunities. 

“Banco Santander wants to use education to help people face the challenges associated with the fourth industrial revolution, especially ones that affect employability. Our scholarship and entrepreneurial programmes run in collaboration with prestigious international universities and institutions are focused in this direction, which is becoming even more important, if that is possible, in the context of this pandemic,” confirmed Javier Roglá, the global head of Santander Universities. 

Santander Scholarships 2021

The different Santander Scholarships programmes in 2021 will be based on seven key areas: Santander Tech – for strengthening digital skills; Santander Skills – for generating transversal skills; Language – for learning languages in work environments; Women – for driving female leadership; Studies – for studying; Internship – for work placements and internships; and Research – for research projects.

Santander Tech Scholarships | Digital Reskilling – Ironhack | Postgraduate-Carolina Foundation Scholarships

January is starting with the launch of two scholarship programmes. Santander Tech Scholarships | Digital Reskilling – Ironhack (applications via www.becas-santander.com until 25 March) for 300 students and professionals living in Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, Poland or Germany who wish to improve or develop their skills in web development and programming technologies and refocus their career towards the area of digital economy. 

Carolina Foundation Scholarships for 10 students in Latin American countries in the Ibero-American Community of Nations and Portugal, which will cover the total cost of fees for a master's course with sustainability as the main theme at five Spanish universities (application deadline: 16 March).

Banco Santander and its support of higher education

Banco Santander is firmly committed to inclusive, sustainable growth and progress with consolidated backing of higher education that distinguishes it from the world's other financial institutions, having channelled more than €1.800 million into academic initiatives through Santander Universities since 2002 and awarded more than 430,000 university scholarships and grants since 2005.