Westpac offers IT scholarship program

Westpac has launched a scholarship program that offers a $15,000 grant to students enrolling in undergraduate degrees in Information Technology at three prestigious universities.

Westpac CEO, Gail Kelly.

Students enrolling next year in undergraduate technology degrees at the University of Sydney, University of Melbourne and Wollongong University will be among the first able to apply for one of 30 scholarships on offer every year.

The ‘Young Technologists’ grants joined several others announced as part of the launch of Westpac’s ‘Bicentennial Foundation’, which is offering some $100 million in contributions to further the education of Australians.

‘Technology and Innovation’ was also listed as an area of focus for a far larger pool of money the Foundation put aside for ‘Future Leaders’ - which offers grants of up to $120,000 to “inventors and innovators” enrolling in postgraduate degrees at the same three universities.

The ‘Future Leaders’ program begins in 2016 and will see grants offered to 17 post-graduate students each year.

A spokesman for Westpac said the bank hoped to encourage greater participation in undergraduate technology degrees.

Westpac also offers a number of graduate positions within the IT division of the bank.