Short Courses Australia Privacy Policy

Policy Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to provide information regarding the protection of privacy of client/staff personal information that Short Courses Australia (SCA) collects, stores and manages.

Scope

This policy relates to all information produced by or collected by the National VET Data Policy and the Australian Privacy Principles (APP). The Australian Privacy Principles are detailed in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 No. 197, 2012.

Short Courses Australia ensures compliance with the National VET Data Policy and the APP's at all times.

Definitions

Department of Education, Skills and Employment's (DESE) is authorised by law, including the Privacy Act and the NVETR Act, to collect, use and disclose your personal information to fulfil specified functions and activities. For more information about how the DESE will handle your personal information, please refer to the DESE VET Privacy Notice at https://www.dese.gov.au/national-vet-data/vet-privacy-notice.

NCVER – National Center for Vocational Education Research is the national professional body responsible for collecting, managing, analysing and communicating research and statistics on the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector.

Personal Information: Personal information is defined under the Privacy Act as information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. For example, personal information may include:

  • an individual's name, signature, address, phone number or date of birth
  • sensitive information
  • credit information
  • employee record information
  • photographs
  • internet protocol (IP) addresses
  • voice print and facial recognition biometrics (because they collect characteristics that make an individual's voice or face unique)
  • location information from a mobile device (because it can reveal user activity patterns and habits)

NOTE: The definition of personal information only relates to ‘natural' persons. It does not extend to other ‘legal' persons, such as companies.

Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) is an Australian law that regulates the handling of personal information about individuals. This includes the collection, use, storage and disclosure of personal information.

The Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 introduced many significant changes to the Privacy Act, including 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) that apply to the handling of personal information.

Sensitive Information - Under the Privacy Act, sensitive information is defined as personal information that includes information or an opinion about an individual's:

  • racial or ethnic origin
  • political opinions or associations
  • religious or philosophical beliefs
  • trade union membership or associations
  • sexual orientation or practices
  • criminal record
  • health or genetic information
  • some aspects of biometric information

USI - Unique Student Identifier is an individual's education identifier for life. It also creates an online record of their training attainments in Australia. When undertaking either nationally recognised training, or a higher education qualification, students need a USI in order to receive commonwealth financial assistance, as well as to obtain their qualification or statement of attainment.

Policy

Personal Information

SCA understands the importance people attach to their personal information (such as name, address, date of birth, personal email address, etc.). SCA is committed to managing and protecting the personal information anyone (potential or existing learner) who shares it with SCA.

Through this policy SCA seeks to ensure that everyone will be able to deal with SCA confidently, knowing that their personal information is only used in a manner that is legal, ethical and secure.

Under the Data Provision Requirements 2012, Short Courses Australia is required to collect personal information about you and to disclose that personal information to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd (NCVER).

Your personal information (including the personal information contained on the enrolment form and your training activity data) may be used or disclosed by Short Courses Australia (SCA) for statistical, regulatory and research purposes. SCA may disclose your personal information for these purposes to third parties, including:

  • School – if you are a secondary student undertaking VET studies;
  • Employer – if you are enrolled in training paid by your employer;
  • Commonwealth and State or Territory government departments and authorised agencies;
  • NCVER;
  • Organisations conducting student surveys; and
  • Researchers.

Or any other relevant or authorised parties, including regulatory bodies or jurisdictions that SCA are associated with.

Personal information disclosed to NCVER may be used or disclosed for the following purposes:

  • Issuing a VET Statement of Attainment or VET Qualification, and populating Authenticated VET Transcripts;
  • facilitating statistics and research relating to education, including surveys;
  • understanding how the VET market operates, for policy, workforce planning and consumer information; and
  • administering VET, including program administration, regulation, monitoring and evaluation.

You may receive an NCVER student survey which may be administered by a government department or an NCVER employee, agent or third party contractor. You may opt out of the survey at the time of being contacted.

NCVER will collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the VET Data Policy and all NCVER policies and protocols (including those published on NCVER's website at www.ncver.edu.au).

SCA retains a record of personal information about all individuals with whom we undertake any form of business activity. SCA must collect, hold, use and disclose information from our clients and stakeholders for a range of purposes.

Access to Personal Records

All matters in relation to course enrolment, assessment results, course fees or any other issue can only be discussed with the student unless the course enrolment form is signed by a third party (such as a parent or guardian for students under the age of 18), or a letter of permission allowing access to the student's information is provided by the student for their file.

When the requested information may breach the privacy of others, the details will be provided to the student requesting the information in a format (written, verbal, statistical) that meets their needs but ensures the privacy of others is maintained.

Requests to view personal files must be made in writing detailing the specific information required. Requests can be submitted to Short Courses Australia via email: info@shortcoursesau.edu.au.

Information Storage

SCA is required to securely retain and be able to produce in full at audit or by the National Regulator the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) if requested to do so, all completed learner assessment items for a period of six (6) months from the date on which the judgement of competence for the learner was made. After this timeframe records will be destroyed with only the evidence of how the judgement outcome was reached by the assessor.

All records are stored on SCA's dedicated servers, and a backup copy of the data is stored offsite and in the cloud.

Restricted access is enforced on files that hold sensitive information to ensure authorised access only.

SCA will at all times, take reasonable steps to ensure the security of physical files (including student files), computers, networks and communications are maintained.