91��Ƶ��ַ����

To celebrate National Mentoring Day today, Santander has launched the Breakthrough Women in Business (WiB) Programme, a mentoring scheme for the next generation of female UK entrepreneurs in association with the award-winning social enterprise Cause4. The launch follows on from the huge success of Santander’s Women in Breakthrough mentoring programme in 2015.

The Women in Business Programme 2017 will support 30 female entrepreneurs and match them with female mentors who themselves are running successful businesses with multi-million pound revenues. To be eligible for the programme, entrepreneurs must:

• be the majority shareholder of a business, with an annual turnover of between £250,000 and £6 million;
• have been trading for at least three years;
• employ between five and 40 individuals; and
• be capable of scaling up their business idea and boosting local employment.

The deadline for mentoring applications is 8 December 2016¹. Applicants will be told by 23 December 2016 if they have been accepted onto the programme. The mentoring will run between January and June 2017.

Santander Breakthrough² is an award-winning suite of products and services to help ambitious businesses grow and prosper. There are five pillars to Breakthrough: access to Talent, support with International success, Connections events, Knowledge masterclasses and access to Finance.

Cause4³ works in partnership with corporations, charities and people to develop charitable projects, create new business models as well as raise vital funds working across the charity, arts, sports and education sectors. Since being set up in May 2009, Cause4 has raised over £46 million for clients, and is committed to helping attract the best graduate talent to work on some of the charitable sector’s most pressing issues.

Alongside the mentoring programme, Santander and Cause4 hosted Breakthrough WiB networking events in Exeter, Manchester and Glasgow in October to support female entrepreneurship. Further events⁴ are planned for Birmingham (17 November) and London (30 November) – speakers for the event in Birmingham include Justice Williams, MBE, Founder of Women Who and the West Midlands Women of the Year Awards; Stephanie Chamberlain, CEO and Founder, Magic Milestones; and Michelle Wright, Founder and CEO, B-Corp and Social Enterprise Cause4.

Sue Douthwaite, ‎Managing Director - Santander Business, said: “We are delighted to be running the Breakthrough Women in Business Programme in partnership with Cause4. This dedicated initiative is one of the most comprehensive programmes of its type and offers real value to the selected entrepreneurs. The Women and Work Commission found that unleashing women’s full potential could be worth £23 billion a year to the Exchequer but that only 4% of women are engaged in entrepreneurial activity compared to 9% of men – we are focused on addressing this shortfall.’’

Michelle Wright, Chief Executive – Cause4, said, “Female entrepreneurs are a vital part of the UK’s SME business community. This programme from Santander Breakthrough is of huge importance in bringing together female entrepreneurs across the country to share experiences and to learn from each other. But also to inspire the next generation of female founders through the mentoring programme which is led by 30 of the country’s leading female entrepreneurs who are all committing their experience and time free of charge to support other female founders to build successful growth businesses”..

- Ends -

The information contained in our press releases is intended solely for journalists and should not be used by consumers to make financial decisions.

Notes to editors

¹ Applicants should email santanderbreakthrough@cause4.co.uk.
² Further information on Breakthrough can be found at .
³ For more information on Cause4, please visit .
⁴ For more information on Breakthrough WiB networking events please visit .

Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. As at 30 June 2016, the bank serves around 14 million active customers with c. 20,000 employees and operates through 847 branches (which includes 58 university branches) and 69 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.

About Us
Banco Santander (SAN SM, STD US, BNC LN) is a leading retail and commercial bank, based in Spain, with a meaningful market share in 10 core countries in Europe and the Americas. Santander is the largest bank in the euro zone by market capitalization and among the top banks on a global basis. Founded in 1857, Santander had EUR 1.52 trillion in managed funds, 12,500 branches and 190,000 employees at the close of June 2016. In the first half of 2016, Santander made underlying profit of EUR 3,280 million.

Media Enquiries
Lara Lipsey      Tel: 020 7756 4518      Mobile: 07713 560 209
Andy Smith      Tel: 020 7756 4212      Mobile: 07824 473 338

The press office operates from 8.00am to 6.00pm. Outside of these hours please call 0800 5877708.