To build a society in which the participation of people with disabilities is fully guaranteed, it is essential to promote the creation of accessible and inclusive environments that promote equal opportunities in all areas of our daily lives. Education is, without a doubt, one of the essential pillars to achieve this objective, since it is a key tool when it comes to facilitating access to quality employment, in a fair, equitable and sustainable way.
Companies and organizations play a relevant role in making it a reality. For this reason, Banco Santander has been involved in this important issue for years. Through the Universia Foundation, it works to improve employability, from a perspective based on equality and equity, committed to the progress of people with disabilities and other groups at risk of exclusion, on the path to their educational development and high employability. One of the most notable initiatives in this field is its Mentoring program for university students with disabilities, of which it has just launched a new edition.
With this initiative, Fundación Universia manages to connect a mentee, who can be a student or a recent graduate with a disability, with a renowned professional from a company who will act as a guide in enhancing their talent and access to the labor market. In this edition, during the months from May to July, a total of between 10 and 20 hours will be dedicated to online conversations, in which participants will have the opportunity to expand their vision about their studies and the opportunities they offer. develop the necessary skills to immerse yourself in the professional world and begin to build a solid network of contacts. In addition, Mentoring offers the option of practicing conversation in a foreign language, thanks to the Speaking Without Frontiers modality.
In these meetings, the student’s communication and relational skills will be enhanced and various issues of interest will be addressed, such as the most in-demand skills in jobs consistent with their training; the different roles that exist within a company; the most effective techniques for actively searching for employment; or the importance of networking.
This initiative, which has been in operation since 2019, has so far generated 160 connections between university talent with disabilities and professionals from different areas of several multinationals that collaborate with the program. Of the total number of students who have participated in Mentoring, 31 have managed to go from internships to obtaining a job (which represents 20% of the total).
One of these people is Diana Puertas, a young Law graduate who continued her training with the master’s degree in Access to the Legal Profession at the Carlos III University (UCM3) and the Santander Advanced Program in Digital Business at ISDI Digital Business School. In the Mentoring program, she had the opportunity to receive the support of Carolina Rantica, a lawyer in Business-oriented Legal Advice at Banco Santander. As Puertas herself explains, “Carolina helped me a lot to develop the tools I needed to continue progressing, offering me useful advice to improve my resume or to become a more visible person on social networks like LinkedIn.”
After finishing the conversations, Rantica helped Puertas “be able to close interviews, both within the bank itself and in other companies. At Banco Santander, I was interviewed by Vanessa Fresno, who would soon become my manager,” the latter explains, satisfied. Today, Diana is dedicated to Legal Consulting, Contracting of Suppliers, Real Estate and General Services of Banco Santander. The young lawyer is proud to have joined a banking entity that pays special attention to the promotion of diversity and inclusion through various active policies.
Puertas is convinced that companies that support people with disabilities, in addition to promoting social and labor inclusion, manage to benefit from their talent. “We are very resilient, strong people with a great capacity to adapt,” he says. “We need companies to be convinced that we are not limited people, but that we have a wide variety of skills that can add a lot of value.”
When she was still a student, Diana’s parents told her that the only barriers that cannot be overcome are those we impose on ourselves. That encouraged her to leave any fear behind and fight to make her goals a reality. As she herself explains, “when you feel that someone undervalues ??you, you must remember the dreams that move you, to continue fighting for them.” Now that she has managed to get where she set out to be in her student years, her desire is to “repay” the help she received in the Universia Foundation program, becoming a mentor for the next editions, with the conviction that “my trail “It can serve as an inspiration for other people who come after us.”
The Mentoring program is another example of the firm commitment that, for more than 27 years, Banco Santander has maintained with education, employability and entrepreneurship with initiatives such as Fundación Universia, which continues to advance in the creation of collaborative university ecosystems. Since its creation, the foundation has invested more than 15 million euros and has awarded more than 3,400 scholarships to promote the employability, progress and mobility of students with disabilities.
The banking entity, for its part, has made clear its commitment to education, employability and entrepreneurship with a total investment of more than 2.3 billion euros, support for more than 1.5 million people and companies and maintains agreements collaboration with more than 1,200 universities and institutions in 26 countries. Its work has already been recognized internationally by the prestigious Fortune magazine, which included Banco Santander in its latest Change of the World 2023 list, which highlights those companies and organizations that contribute significantly to solving major social challenges.