Santander and the IE Foundation strike an agreement to train university students from 15 countries in digital transformation

Through Santander Universities and IE Foundation, the IE University Foundation, Banco Santander has signed an agreement whereby 180 university students from 15 countries will benefit from specialist training in digital transformation to boost their employability and training in technology and innovation.

The scholarships programme, which forms part of Santander Scholarships| Digital Skills, will select 100 university students in a number of disciplines from Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, the US, Spain, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, the UK and Uruguay to apply for an IE Santander Digital DNA Scholarship.

30 of them will also be placed in a selection process for professional internships at Banco Santander, with the possibility of joining the team.

In the ensuing months, 80 new Santander Scholarships will be created for STEM profiles (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) as part of the Banco Santander/IE Foundation agreement.

Javier López, global director of the social impact of Santander Universities, points out that “At Banco Santander, we want to help university students to develop their professional skills so they have better chances of seizing the job opportunities presented by digital transformation”.

“All graduates must have a common DNA to help them understand and manage the digital world we live in.”

Carlos Mas, executive vice chairman of the IE Foundation, remarks: “all graduates, irrespective of their disciplines, must have a common DNA to help them understand and manage the digital world we live in. Empowering and developing this talent forms part of the mission we share with Banco Santander, and this is the main focus of the scholarship programme”.

The first 100 students selected for the Santander IE-Digital DNA programme will be taught in English and Spanish by lecturers at the IE School of Human Sciences and Technology, one of the IE University departments. It targets undergraduates in their two final years, students on master courses and students who graduated within five years from the launch of the programme.

The students will take two five-week Hiops courses (High Impact Online Programmes). The first, New Technologies for Innovation, was devised to gain insight into the impact of digital disruption on businesses, and how companies are creating competitive edge by using these technologies.

The second, Data Science and Visualisation for Business, will give students a grounding in data science and practical experience in information and visualisation of data to help them make the best possible business decisions on a daily basis.

“Santander IE-Digital DNA will help students understand the impact of technology and comprehend the potential of data science to make decisions in the business world. They will enhance their knowledge and develop skills to undertake new challenges in their career”, claims Lee Newman, Dean of IE School of Human Sciences and Technology.

Students may enrol now at www.becas-santander.com, and may do so up to 30 September 2019.

To boost university students' employability, 1,000 finalists on the Santander IE-Digital DNA programme who fail to secure a place can gain access to a MOOC training programme on ‘Intelligence Tools for Digital Age’ at IE University, and both institutions will fund the certificate for the course to accredit their qualification in future selection processes.

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, and it provided more than 73,000 university scholarships and grants in 2018 alone, with the aim of helping people, businesses and society to prosper.

About the IE Foundation

The IE Foundation (Fundación Instituto de Empresa) is a non-profit organisation that works to enhance IE’s impact through the application of its own resources and collaboration with strategic partners. Created in 1997, the Foundation has been actively promoting the institution’s values of entrepreneurship, diversity, inclusivity and innovation for over twenty years, with special emphasis placed on the humanities as an essential aspect of our approach to higher education.