Santander announces "crucial" partnership to help businesses plug skills gap

Santander UK has today announced it will partner with Unibeez, a London based skills platform for emerging talent. The platform connects students and graduates to a range of jobs and enables businesses to grow by providing access to in-demand skills.

From projects, internships, apprenticeships to permanent hire, Unibeez and its hirers support future talent, enhance work readiness skills and are advocates of equality, diversity and inclusion.

Chris Keenan, Unibeez co-founder and CEO, commented: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Santander UK both through their International ground-breaking platform Santander Navigator and also with the Corporate & Commercial Banking team through their SME Support Toolkit.

“Our platform allows their forward-thinking clients and subscribers to connect with the UK’s ambitious and diverse emerging talent pool, helping to bring efficiencies to the skills market.”

John Carroll, head of international and transactional banking, Santander UK, added: “Our latest Spring Trade Barometer shows the ability to attract skilled staff is key to businesses’ ability to grow over the next three years.

“Over the past six months, businesses have been inundated with labour related crises including higher starting salaries, more staff vacancies than usual and Brexit-induced staff shortages. Our partnership with Unibeez will be crucial to help businesses access new talent as they place recruitment and training at the top of their investment plans for the next year.”

The Unibeez platform will be available at a discount to Santander Navigator’s subscribers as well as to Santander UK’s clients and Santander’s’ partner universities. The platform will use AI to match the skills of students and graduates with the skills employers are looking for.

With a highly diverse talent pool including 69 per cent female, 25 per cent STEM graduates and 45 per cent candidates from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, Unibeez has been designed to help eliminate hiring bias on the grounds of race, gender and socio-economic background.

The diversity, creativity and digital skills of the UK’s student and graduate population are in “huge demand by employers. The digital skill shortage is set to cost the UK economy £12.8bn a year while diverse teams are 70 per cent more likely to capture new markets.

John Carroll added: “SMEs are the lifeblood of the UK economy. But they need our help to recover from the challenges they’ve faced over the last few years. A quarter have asked for help with recruitment and this platform will do just that.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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