The fourth edition of the programme was officially opened at the headquarters of Fepime on Wednesday morning, 14 January 2015. Present at the event were the rectors of several public and private Catalan universities, as well as Claudi Alsina, the General Secretary of the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia, Beatriz Fernández Tubau, the Vice President of Fepime, and Luis Herrero, the Regional Director of Banco Santander in Catalonia and the corporation’s Deputy Managing Director. Mercè Ferrer, the Executive Director for Corporate Development, and Chariti Jaureguízar, the Head of the Grant Unit, attended in representation of UIC Rector Dr. Pere Alavedra.

The grant programme is sponsored by Banco Santander, the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) and the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CEPYME), which is represented in Catalonia by Fepime.

The grants, each of which is worth €1,800, will enable students to undertake professional internships at Catalan SMEs and micro-companies for a period of three months, so they can complete their training, increase their knowledge and join the job market with greater ease. The programme also allows SMEs to recruit the best young talent from the region.

In order to take part, students and companies must register on the website www.becas-santander.com, where they will also find the terms and conditions of the programme.

The universities will be responsible for assigning the internships based on criteria of transparency, merit and language skills. The companies themselves will also assess the candidates in a personal interview. 

Banco Santander promotes this grant initiative through its Santander Universities Global Division, which maintains partnership agreements with more than 1,100 universities and research centres around the world. Over the last 17 years, it has earmarked more than €1 billion for different university projects and initiatives. More information can be found at www.santander.com/universidades.