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Santander has pledged £1million to support small and medium businesses (SMEs) in the Leeds City Region with new apprenticeship programmes over the next two years. In partnership with Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (the LEP), Santander will transfer part of its Apprenticeship Levy Fund to local SMEs to fund the recruitment and training of apprentices predominantly in the care sector, as well as to support businesses looking to build digital skill sets within their companies. The commitment through the government backed Apprenticeship Levy scheme ensures that unspent levy goes towards supporting businesses to fund their own apprenticeship programmes where they may not have previously been able to benefit from the apprenticeship levy. The new schemes will not only cover the costs of recruitment and training of apprentices to enable businesses to thrive but will also ensure investment is made into creating career developing opportunities for many within the local area.
Many congratulations to Santander’s Susan Allen who has been awarded British LGBT Awards Corporate Ally Award for her commitment to advocating on behalf of our LGBT+ customers and colleagues. #Everydayinclusion #BritishLGBTAwards
Fantastic news that Santander UK has been ranked in The Social Mobility Foundation Social Mobility Employer Index for 2020. The Index was created in 2017 and ranks UK’s employers on the action they take to ensure they are open to and progressing talent from all backgrounds. It highlights the employers who are doing the most to change how they find, recruit, and advance talented employees from different social class backgrounds. Now in its fourth year the Employer Index is the definitive benchmark of organisations committed to improving social mobility in the workplace.
This year we were keen to not let Covid-19 stop us from delivering an immersive, meaningful and exciting onboarding experience enabling the graduates and apprentices to virtually connect with each other and the bank who joined us on 5th October to start their careers with Santander. Find out how they found the experience by watching this video.
In recognition to the change to our family friendly policies to provide additional support to those colleagues whose baby is born prematurely, we have been awarded The Smallest Things Employer with Heart Chartermark and have been added to their Hall of Fame. Welcoming the news, Catriona Ogilvy, founder of premature baby charity The Smallest Things, said: “We are delighted that Santander has signed up to our Employer with Heart charter and will give parents of babies born prematurely the extra time they need. Visiting a fragile baby on a neonatal unit for weeks, sometimes months, is terrifying and shouldn’t be counted as maternity or paternity leave. We know that health issues – for babies and parents – often continue long after leaving hospital so we’re pleased to hear employees will be supported on their return to work at Santander too”.
Santander UK Universities and Ambitious about Autism have launched a new programme to tackle graduate employment. The Employ Autism Higher Education Network will enable autistic students studying at universities to access paid internships and tailored careers support and advice. Working with 17 universities from across the UK, the programme trains both careers staff at the universities to work with autistic students and supports employers to offer paid work experience placements to autistic students and graduates. And with matched funding!
John Collins, Director of Legal and Regulatory, and our Executive Committee sponsor for Social Mobility alongside Anouska Ramsay, Director of Culture and Capability share their thoughts on social mobility and the importance of attracting diverse talent into Financial Services.
Santander is committed to supporting diversity and to creating an inclusive culture for our own employees – but we don’t stop there. We also look for opportunities to share our experience with other organisations. John Collins, our Chief Legal & Regulatory Officer, joined other UK employers to record this video for the Social Mobility Commission – to share their views on how attracting a diverse pool of talent can drive innovation and give businesses that competitive edge.
Euromoney has recognised Santander as the World’s Best Bank for Diversity and Inclusion, and the World’s Best Bank for SMEs in its 2020 “Excellence in Leadership” awards. It is the third time in five years that Santander has won the SME award and the first time it has been named Best Bank for Diversity and Inclusion.
Congratulations to our excellent Learning team who have achieved the Princess Royal Training Awards standard in 2020!! Santander UK established a Virtual Academy as a modern and cost-effective training solution for key roles. The Academy offers a blend of learning through coaches and a new interface providing bite-size learning and seasonal boxsets. New staff can start training from day 7 (compared to day 33 previously) and a reduction in travel has resulted in a reduction of 106.76 Tonnes of CO2e and a cost-saving of over £1.2 million in expenses.
