Commercial property banking giant Santander recently launched a new UK internship scheme to place graduates with small and medium-sized commercial property enterprises across the country.
The programme joins up the commercial property bank with 58 universities and was launched by Santander chief executive Ana Botin, with chairman of Santander UK Terry Burns, at an event at the Royal Opera House in London. The internship awards are open to undergraduate and postgraduate students at Santander’s partner commercial property universities and are intended to encourage students to pursue their business ideas.
Commercial property bank Santander will provide 50 per cent of a basic salary to the 500 interns taking part in the project, with the commercial property companies-and in some cases the partner universities-paying the rest. In addition to finance, the banking giant said it will help with administration and placement.
The commercial property bank said it was the first of its kind from a UK bank, and is designed to help graduates get the work experience they need whilst giving commercial property SMEs the chance to access top talent.
Botin commented: “We hope our new internship programme can help provide our talented graduate community with the opportunity to gain vital experience in the work place, whist opening their eyes to the benefits of working for smaller companies.
“Santander is proud to be supporting and recognising the entrepreneurial skills demonstrated by students through our Entrepreneurship Awards, as well as announcing an additional £1.5 million of funding to support British universities, taking our total investment to £7 million in the UK and £120 million globally, this year.”
Santander has a track record of investing in UK commercial property business; each year it donates one per cent of net proceeds to higher education entries worldwide. The commercial property bank said that this amounted to £96m in 2011, of which several million went to UK institutions.
To mark the fifth anniversary of Santander commercial property Universities in the UK, Ana Botin announced a further £1.5m of funding to UK commercial property universities, taking its total investment to £7 million in 2012, as well as 100 new mobility grants of £2,500 accessible to UK students to study abroad.
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