27/06/2014

Santander Internship Fellowships Awarded for Second Year

Banco Santander, through its Santander Universities Global Division, opened its second call for Santander-CRUE-CEPYME Fellowship applications. A total of 616 fellowships are available to students at Catalan universities to do internships in small and medium-sized companies in Catalonia during the 2012-2013 academic year. Twelve UIC students will be awarded fellowships.

The
fellowship programme was presented on Saturday, 1 December 2012, at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in a ceremony presided over by Antoni Giró, the UPC Rector. UIC Rector Pere Alavedra was also
in attendance.

The deadline for applications is 31 January 2013 the
programme is open to students enrolled in bachelor's and master's degree
programmes in Spanish universities or affiliated centres and to
foreign-exchange students temporarily studying in Spanish universities. Those
interested must have completed 50% of the credits required to graduate and must
not have a contract with the university or company where they will be interning.
Each fellowship awards the gross amount of €600 per month and is compatible
with any additional aid voluntarily offered by the company.

The
initiative offers a total of 5,000 fellowships to university students around Spain,
in addition to the 2,500 that were awarded in the 2011-2012 academic year. Each
fellowship grants €1,800 of financial aid distributed over three months. The amount
spent in 2013 will reach €9 million and is covered entirely by Banco Santander, in addition to the €4.5 million invested the
previous year.

This
initiative will allow a total of nearly 1,000 Catalan university students to do
internships in 2012 and 2013, which represents an expenditure of almost €1,800,000.

The
fellowships are sponsored by Banco
Santander, the Conference of Rectors
of Spanish Universities (CRUE) and the Spanish Confederation of Small and
Medium-sized Businesses (CEPYME), which is represented in Catalonia by Fepime. The
fellowships provide students with three-month internships in Catalan companies
and aim to broaden students' knowledge and increase their employability.

The first
call for applications was very well received. A total of 60,000 university
students applied for fellowships and nearly 5,000 companies took part in the
initiative. A survey among the participants revealed that 40% of the students
continued in the company either by extending their fellowships (25%) or as
employees (15%). Furthermore, 83% said that the internship had met their
expectations.