Skills Development Hub - privacy promise

Data protection laws are complicated things, and they instruct us to tell you very specific things. Our aim is to do this in a way that conveys how seriously we take our responsibilities and make it all just a bit more user-friendly.

1. Looking after your personal information matters to us. We make sure that  we have appropriate security measures in place, and that the organisations we work with to provide a service meet the same standard as us.
2. We will respect your privacy. We don’t share your information with others for commercial reasons. We will make sure that the boxes you need to tick if you are happy to receive marketing or other communications are presented clearly and at an appropriate time.
3. We will make it clear at the point when we request your information, what we are collecting it for and how we are going to use it.
4. We will collect and use your personal information only if we have your permission or we have sensible business reasons for doing so.
5. We will collect the smallest amount of information possible from you to enable you to fully access the learning materials and tools in the Skills Development Hub.
6. We will be clear in our dealings with you as to what information about you we will collect and how we will use it.
7. We will use personal information only for the purposes for which it was originally collected and we will make sure we store and delete it securely.
8. The Skills Development Hub has learning groups as part of the service. Please remember that if you interact in forums that they can be read by other educators and students.
9. If we, our service providers, or our commercial partners transfer any information out of the European Economic Area (EEA), it will only be done with the relevant legal safeguards in place.

When you register on the Skills Development Hub we will ask you for your details including name and email address which will enable you to create a login.

You will then be asked to complete a registration process. This will collect some information about you that will enable us to tailor the services provided more closely to your needs.
We process this data as part of our contract with you to deliver the courses and learning you request within the Skills Development Hub.

You will also be asked for some personal data that relates to your ethnicity, sexual orientation and details of any disability. Answering these questions is not compulsory but if you do volunteer the information after being told what it is being used for on the form you will have given your consent for its processing.
The reason we collect this information is that we are a grant-funded organisation and it is imperative that we show the partners who fund our work that opportunities are open to all. It also enables us to look closely at the services we provide to measure if there are any biases which we can correct or if there are communities who need greater outreach or support.
We don’t use this information to specifically identify or make decisions about individuals. It is separated and used in an anonymous form for any analysis we do.

We may also use your telephone number to contact you if there is an issue with your registration or to ask you to give us feedback about the Skills Development Hub so that we can improve the courses and services offered. We believe that this is a legitimate interest which is of real benefit to you, however if you do not want to hear from us in this way we will always give you the opportunity to opt out.

When you participate in a course, take an assessment or complete a task, this information will be stored in your student record as part of our contract to deliver the courses as per your request.

The website uses cookies to facilitate its functionality, particularly with regards to your preferences.  Cookies are small packets of data that are stored on your device(s). Other than strictly necessary cookies, you have a choice as to whether or not to accept these and you can find out more on our Cookie Policy.

We use JISC best practive and guidelines for the management of student records. As part of our commitment to lifelong learning, we retain details about each individual learner, i.e. name, courses studied, CPD gained and test results ad infinitum.

Otherwise, we determine the length of time we keep your data, based on why you gave it to us in the first place. When we don’t need to keep it anymore, we do one of three things:

• we erase it
• we keep a small amount because we have to, and keep it safe, sometimes disguising it
• if you say you don’t want to hear from us ever again, we keep the minimum amount information to make sure we leave you alone.

Our Partners

The technology partner contracted to deliver the Skills Development Hub on behalf of WorldSkills UK is Virtual College Ltd, Marsel House, Stephensons Way, Ilkley LS29 8DD

All servers hosting the data for the service are based in the UK.

If you require assistance and use the Help and Support function on the Skills Development Hub, you will be redirected to a service delivered by our technology partner Virtual College. In order to assist you with your query, they will require some information from you.  How this personal data is managed by Virtual College is covered in their privacy policy.

We do our best to look after your data, and this means you can ask us to make some changes, either to the information itself or to the way we handle it. You can ask us to:

• Make changes to information which is out of date or incorrect (rectification)
• Stop sending you information about WorldSkills via email (objection)
• Stop processing your information while we solve a problem (restriction)
• Delete all of the information we hold about you (erasure)
• Give you access to all of the information we hold about you (access request)
• Give you your information in a useable electronic format so that you can use it elsewhere (portability)

When you make a request, we may ask you for some specific information to help us confirm your identity and ensure you may exercise these rights. We will make it easy and secure for you to share this information with us. There is no charge for an access request and we will respond  within one calendar month.

Please be aware that there may be some circumstances where we can’t do what you ask us to because the law doesn’t allow it. There may also be occasions where an access request will take a little longer than normal.  If this is the case we will let you know.

If you make a compliant request to erase all of your data, we will no longer be able to fulfil any request to provide supporting information with regards to your course participation.

To make changes to, or update your personal information, access it or ask us to change the way we contact you please email us.

We are registered as a controller with the ICO – Information Commissioner’s office.
Our Registration number is: Z8810460
Our Data Protection Officer is: Data Oversight, King’s Head House, 15 London End, Beaconsfield HP9 2HN
Telephone: 0800 6120742
Email: dpo@worldskills.org

If you are not satisfied with the way we have handled a request regarding your information, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority – details of which are given below:
Information Commissioner’s Office 
Telephone: +44 303 123 1113

WorldSkills UK as an organisation currently offers services only to UK residents, i.e. students, apprentices, educators and training providers based in schools, colleges, universities and workplaces in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

As such, our data protection policies and proceedures are based on the UK Data Protection Act 2018, the UKGDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). Where there are additional applicable laws and guidelines which regulate how we use and manage data, we also follow these.

If we make changes to our privacy promise we will show you what they are here. If these changes are significant, we may also choose to email relevant individuals with new details. If we are required by law, we will obtain your consent to make these changes.

Privacy notice created: April 2021