Santander jobs boost for graduates - graduate jobs

Graduates look set to benefit from the creation of 400 Santander call centre jobs after it was revealed that they account for one in three workers in this field.

The new roles will support business created by the Spanish group's expansion into the UK market.

It comes as a recent survey by Hays Contact Centres found one in three call centre staff are graduates.

The jobs, which will be based in Glasgow, Liverpool and Leicester, are the latest addition to the Santander workforce after the group announced the creation of 600 branch-based roles in July.

Earlier this month it was revealed that the bank had accumulated the highest proportion of customer complaints during the first six months of the year.

Santander said that the new roles would ensure that it "continues to improve its service".

The bank has 25 million customers and 1,300 branches following its acquisitions of Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and parts of Bradford & Bingley. It received 216,158 complaints in the six months to June.

Santander, which employs 22,500 staff in the UK, has seen new products such as the Santander Zero current account drive its market share in the UK, with lending to small and medium businesses also growing by 20% this year.

Earlier this year, the company said it was on track to open a million new accounts for the second year in a row, and posted a 10% rise in pre-tax profits to £875 million for the first six months of the year.