Banco Santander is giving 1,000 Santander Languages Scholarships | English to boost your career - University of Pennsylvania scholarships to help students tighten their command of professional English.

Non-native English speakers above the age of 18 who are interested in advancing their careers are eligible to apply. 

The application process will be open on www.becas-santander.com until 23 November.

Madrid, 13 September 2021 - PRESS RELEASE
Professional English is a vital asset that has a powerful impact on people's careers. Upskilling (i.e., learning new skills) in this area helps put career goals in reach. 

Banco Santander remains committed to continuous learning and language training to drive employability. Santander Universities is offering 1,000 new Santander Languages Scholarships | English to boost your career - University of Pennsylvania to help ambitious professionals interested in advancing their careers with a tighter command of technical English. 

These scholarships are aimed at non-native English speakers in Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain, UK, USA and Uruguay who are older than 18 years of age and have at least a B1 (intermediate) level. 

The application process is being run with the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), one of the world’s leading institutions. A member of the prestigious Ivy League network in the United States, it is regularly ranked among the world’s Top 20 universities by Times Higher Education and QS.

The programme lets students choose from three modules based on their career goals: 

• English for Career Development: Students will learn to tackle hiring processes and interviews in English, enhancing their employability. They will also have the chance to explore their desired career path while improving their vocabulary and fluency. 
• English for Business and Entrepreneurship: Students interested in business and the global economy will learn English for analysing market studies, drawing up business plans, attracting investors and securing funding, while they explore entrepreneurial practices from all over the world. 
• English for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics: Students will learn to discuss cause and effect, draw up research strategies, analyse experiment data and do other things in English. This course also uses topics related to climate change to demonstrate the use of scientific and technical language.   

For Javier Roglá, global head of Santander Universities, “languages, especially English, are a basic requirement to get a job and develop a career in an environment that is quickly becoming more digital and more international. In these times of transformation, we believe having better professional English is key to, for instance, achieving better outcomes in hiring processes, which is something the University of Pennsylvania has a great deal of experience with”.

Jack Sullivan, director of Penn’s English Language Programs, says, “A core element of our mission is to foster partnerships that allow us to reach students around the globe while using the most suitable technology.  We are thrilled to collaborate with Banco Santander, the world leader in higher education investment, to offer free, convenient, and engaging online lessons that will help students and recent graduates in putting their best foot forward in the increasingly competitive job market”.

This online course, set up on UPenn’s e-learning platform, will offer both individual exercises (questionnaires about articles and videos, games and practical self-recording tasks) and group activities (conversations, commentary and Q&As with teachers and classmates about the coursework, which will occasionally involve mentoring from an internationally-renowned expert).

The five-week course, which begins in January 2022, will be taught by UPenn’s English Language Programs department. The application period is open until 23 November at becas-santander.com. 

Banco Santander and its support for higher education
Banco Santander, the leader in responsible banking, is firmly committed to progress and inclusive sustainable growth. Through Santander Universities, it has been a pioneering stalwart of higher education for 25 years, standing out among the world's financial institutions. Banco Santander has committed more than EUR 2 billion and awarded over 630,000 scholarships and grants since the Universities programme began.

University of Pennsylvania’s commitment to positive global impact
The Penn Compact 2022 is University President Amy Gutmann’s vision for the University of Pennsylvania to drive inclusion, innovation and impact in the US. The free online classes it offers about people’s everyday lives is just one example of the university’s commitment. UPenn’s English Language Programs (ELP) have pioneered attractive online course development since 2014.  Some two million students have enrolled in online ELP classes on topics that include applying to universities in the US, career development, media literacy and climate change.