City & Guilds Learner and Apprentice Privacy Notice

Introduction

City & Guilds is committed to data security and the fair and transparent processing of personal data. This privacy notice sets out how City & Guilds, treats learner and apprentice personal data.

If you are a learner registered with City & Guilds to undertake learning or an apprentice registered with City & Guilds for the purposes of end-point assessment, please read this notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data (process), your rights in relation to your personal data, how to contact us, and how to contact supervisory authorities in the event that you would like to report a concern about the way in which we process your personal data.

Who are we?

For the purposes of applicable data protection law, including the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (EU GDPR), the UK GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), The City and Guilds of London Institute is the ‘controller’ of learner and apprentice personal data.

The City and Guilds of London Institute is a charity incorporated by Royal Charter, with registered charity number 312832 (England and Wales) and SC039576 (Scotland). Our registered address is Giltspur House, 5-6 Giltspur Street, London, EC1A 9DE (City & Guilds, we, us, or our).

City & Guilds a City & Guilds business includes City & Guilds, and its associated companies (including City & Guilds International Limited) and  businesses (including ILM). You can find out more about the City and Guilds business here.

We work closely with our associated companies including processing of personal data, see our other companies’ privacy notices for more information.

If you have any queries about this notice, the way in which we process personal data, or about exercising any of your rights, you may send an email to dp@cityandguilds.com or write to Data Protection, City & Guilds, Giltspur House, 5-6 Giltspur Street, London, EC1A 9DE.

What personal data do we collect?

We collect your name, gender, and date of birth, and any other personal data which is necessary in relation to a specific qualification or programme, apprenticeship, apprenticeship standard or framework, or assessment. We may also collect personal data if required to administer our quality assurance processes, investigations, complaints and appeals. This personal data is provided to us by centres, customers, employers, employer providers, training providers, awarding bodies, or other industry bodies you have registered and/or contracted with to receive learning, training, assessment, and/or certification products and/or services provided by us.

If you take a City & Guilds remotely invigilated test, we will record the form of identification you provide before the start of the test, and your test activity including portrait images of your face and screen activity during the test.  

In some circumstances, we may also collect and/or be provided with special category data, such as data about your physical or mental health or condition, to enable us to administer requests for reasonable adjustments, or in relation to an investigation, complaint, or appeal. Such data should only be collected and/or provided to us if you have provided your explicit consent or if we are otherwise permitted to receive and process it under the applicable data protection law (including as set out below).

We assign a unique number to each learner and apprentice at the point of enrolment or registration, which we also use in relation to your learning, training, assessment, and/or certification.

We may also receive personal data about you if you use any of the other websites which we, or another company within the City & Guilds business, or the other services and/or products which we, or another company within the City & Guilds business, provide.  You can find out more about the City and Guilds business here.

How do we process your personal data?

We may process your personal data where this is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests as a provider of learning, training, assessment, invigilation, and/or certification products and/or services, including to:

  • provide you with products and/or services for which you have enrolled or registered, or have been enrolled or registered;
  • undertake administration in relation to products and/or services for which you are enrolled or registered;
  • provide you with a certificate, credential, or other record of learning;
  • arrange for a digital credential to be issued to you when you have successfully completed a course or e-learning module, attended an event, or in recognition of an achievement
  • contact you directly in relation to our quality assurance processes, investigations, complaints, and appeals;
  • assess and provide reasonable adjustments in relation to your learning or assessment where requested; 
  • prevent and detect crime and/or assist with the apprehension or prosecution of offenders; and
  • provide you with remote invigilation session booking confirmation emails and support. 

We may also process your personal data in pursuance of our legitimate interests to contact you directly in relation to new and existing products, services, news, awards and events offered by City & Guilds or another City & Guilds business. Where you do receive such marketing communications from us, you may change your preferences or unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in an email from us.

Where required by law:  we may also process your personal data if required by law.

Special category data

We may collect and/or be provided with special category data, such as data about your physical or mental health or condition. For example, we may collect and/or be provided with special category data to enable us to administer requests for reasonable adjustments, or in relation to an investigation, complaint, or appeal.

With respect to special category data, we may also process such data if necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, including for the prevention or detection of unlawful acts or in compliance with, or to assist third parties to comply with, any regulatory requirements relating to the investigation of unlawful acts, dishonesty or malpractice. 

Who do we share your personal data with?

We may share your personal data with relevant third parties, where necessary, in relation to your learning, assessment, certification, or the verification of your learning, assessment or certification, and associated research and analytical activities, including:

  • regulatory authorities, sector skills councils, professional bodies and similar industry bodies; such as the Department for Education and the examinations regulators (e.g.  Ofqual in England), other local authorities and the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).
  • skills certification schemes and bodies;
  • consortiums, authorised representatives, and partners; and
  • centres, customers, employers, employer providers, training providers, awarding bodies and similar third parties.

City & Guilds collaborate with other Awarding Organisations including sharing of learner results data for statistical analysis and purposes including standardisation across General and Vocational Qualifications. An awarding body may also use information about you to investigate cheating and other examination malpractice and will share information about malpractice with other awarding bodies.

We may also share your personal data with trusted third party service providers, including

  • legal and other professional advisers, consultants, and professional experts;
  • service providers contracted to us in connection with provision of learning, assessment, and training products and/or services such as markers, moderators, invigilators, assessors, certification or credentialing providers, IT services and customer relationship management services;
  • our digital credential partner platform and
  • analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website.

We will ensure that there is a contract in place with such third party service providers, which includes obligations in relation to the confidentiality, security, and lawful processing of any personal data shared with them, and which upholds your rights and freedoms with respect to personal data.

Where a third party recipient is located outside the UK, European Economic Area, or any other approved country or territory, we will ensure that the transfer of personal data is protected by appropriate safeguards, including international data transfer agreements in the UK, and the use of standard data protection clauses adopted or approved by the European Commission when applicable.

In some circumstances we share personal data within the City & Guilds business, including City & Guilds companies registered in the UK and outside of the UK to maintain and improve current and future services, customer engagement, and sales opportunities across our business.   

Any shared access of personal data is subject to restrictions both legally and contractually. We may also share personal data (including any special category data) with law enforcement or other authorities or agencies if required by law or where we otherwise deem it necessary in pursuance of our legitimate interests. This may include, without being limited to, responding to requests for information from such authorities or agencies, or sharing information with them in connection with our quality assurance processes, investigations, complaints, or appeals.

You should be aware that, where personal data is shared with a public authority, it will become subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and may potentially fall within the scope of any future FOIA request made to such public authority. 

How long will we keep your personal data?

We will keep personal data relating to your learning, training, assessment, and/or certification in order to:

  • provide information about your learning, training, assessment and/or certification;
  • provide replacement certification;
  • respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you, on your behalf or about you;
  • comply with any relevant third party record retention requirements (e.g. those of a regulator); and
  • comply with any contractual, legal, audit, and other regulatory requirements, or any orders from competent courts or authorities.

We will also keep personal data relating to our quality assurance processes, investigations, appeals and complaints, in order to comply with applicable contractual, legal, audit and other regulatory requirements, or any orders from competent courts or authorities.

City & Guilds keeps personal data for no longer than as is necessary for the above purposes.

How do we protect your personal data?

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that both we and our third party service providers protect your personal data. This includes ensuring that our staff are aware of their information security obligations, providing training, and limiting access to your personal data to staff who have a genuine business need to know.

We also take reasonable steps to protect your personal data from loss or destruction and have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Furthermore, our project management and change control process includes structured assessment of information security and data privacy risks. This process aims to ensure that all proposed system changes of City & Guilds from time to time fully align with data protection requirements and good practice to uphold data subjects’ rights and freedoms with respect to personal data. 

Your rights

Under applicable data protection law, you have various rights with respect to our processing of your personal data:

Right to Access

You have the right to request a copy of the personal data that we hold about you by contacting us at the email or postal address given below. Please include with your request information that will enable us to verify your identity. We will respond within 1 month of request. Please note that there are exceptions to this right. We may be unable to make all data available to you if, for example, making the data available to you would reveal personal data about another person, if we are legally prevented from disclosing such data, if there is no basis for your request, or if your request is excessive.

Right to rectification

We aim to keep your personal data accurate, current and complete. We encourage you to contact us using the contact details provided below to let us know if any of your personal data is not accurate or changes, so that we can keep your personal data up-to-date.

Right to erasure

You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data where, for example, the personal data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, where you withdraw your consent to processing, where there is no overriding legitimate interest for us to continue to process your personal data, or your personal data has been unlawfully processed. If you would like to request that your personal data be erased, please contact us using the contact details provided below.

Right to object

In certain circumstances, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data where, for example, your personal data is being processed on the basis of legitimate interests and there is no overriding legitimate interest for us to continue to process your personal data, or if your data is being processed for direct marketing purposes. If you would like to object to the processing of your personal data, please contact us using the contact details provided below.

Right to restrict processing

In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we restrict the further processing of your personal data. This right arises where, for example, you have queried the accuracy of the personal data we hold about you and we are verifying the personal data, you have objected to processing based on legitimate interests and we are considering whether there are any overriding legitimate interests, or the processing is unlawful and you elect that processing is restricted rather than deleted. If you would like to make such request, please contact us using the contact details provided below.

Right to data portability

In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that some of your personal data is provided to you, or to another ‘controller’, in a commonly used, machine-readable format. This right arises where you have provided your personal data to us, the processing is based on consent or the performance of a contract, and processing is carried out by automated means. If you would like to make such request, please contact us using the contact details provided below.

Please note that applicable data protection law sets out exceptions to these rights. If we are unable to comply with your request due to an exception, we will explain this to you in our response.

Contact

If you have any queries about this notice, the way in which City & Guilds processes personal data, or about exercising any of your rights, you can send an email to dp@cityandguilds.com or write to Data Protection, City & Guilds, Giltspur House, 5-6 Giltspur Street, London, EC1A 9DE.

Complaints

If you believe that your data protection rights may have been breached, and we have been unable to resolve your concern, you may lodge a complaint with the applicable supervisory authority or seek a remedy through the courts. Please visit the UK Information Commissioner's Office website for more information on how to report a concern.

Changes to our Notice

Any changes we may make to our notice in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our notice.


- Learner Privacy Notice version 6, 14 February 2024

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