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Data Privacy Notice

Privacy Notice

The Apprenticeship Works is part of BCTG Group.

The following is BCTG’s privacy notice, which relates to all Group Companies. It explains our approach to collecting and using personal information (any information which relates to or identifies an individual) about people we interact with. It also supplements more specific information you may have been given (a privacy notice or statement) when engaging with a service, facility, event or initiative run by BCTG. For example, you may have followed a link here because you signed up to attend an event aimed at prospective students or members of the public. The information below is the same for all of BCTG’s activities where personal information is collected, so we thought it would be helpful to have it in one place that you can refer to and revisit whenever you need.

Who are we?

We are BCTG Limited, is a large independently owned Training Provider. We offer education and training across a wide range of programmes including programmes for 16-19 NEETs, Adult employability courses, Advanced Learner Loans and Apprenticeships. Courses may be government funded (for example by the Department of Education, West Midlands Combined Authority or Education & Skills Funding Agency) or offered on a commercial fee paying basis, paid for by you or your employer.

Why are we processing your personal information?

You may have already been told about the specific purposes for which we are processing your personal information, as well as the ‘legal’ or ‘lawful’ basis for that processing (the justification under current data protection legislation).

More about ‘legal’/’lawful’ basis:

We can only process (collect, use, store etc) your personal information if one of the following applies:

  • We need your personal information to provide a service as part of a contract(for example, to enable you/us to fulfil your/our obligations under an education contract or employment contract). Note that in English law ‘contracts’ are not limited to those in writing, so this justification may also cover less formal agreements between you and BCTG.
  • We need your personal information to perform our official functionsas a government funded training provider, and those functions are in the public interest. This justification also covers situations where we need to share information with other organisations in order for them to carry out their official functions (for example, audit and compliance).
  • We need your personal information to comply with a legal obligationto which we are subject (for example, providing data about our staff and learners to the Education & Skills Funding Agency and Department for Education is a legal requirement for training providers under the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.
  • We need your personal information for a legitimate interestof the organisation or a third party, provided that interest is not overridden by your interests and rights (for example, we may need to process your information to comply with the Ofsted Common Inspection Framework).
  • We need your personal information to protect somebody’s life (a vital interest).
  • You provide consent for us to process your personal information, based on clear and specific information, with a genuine choice (without any pressure), and the ability to change your mind at any time.

How do we use your personal information?

We will generally use your personal information to provide you with the services, products or information you have requested from us. We may need to share your information with our service providers for these purposes, but we will ensure that appropriate contracts with these parties are in place and they only process your information in accordance with our instructions and data protection legislation. If we need to transfer any information to a country not recognised as providing equivalent protection, we will use additional safeguards approved by UK or EU regulators.

What are your rights?

By law, you have certain rights over your personal information:

  • To receive a copy of your information
  • To ask us to correct any errors
  • To delete it once we no longer need it
  • To ask us to stop using your information in a certain way
  • To ask for certain information in a portable, electronic format
  • To object to certain uses of your information (for example, marketing and automatic profiling or decision making)

To make a request for any of the above, please contact enquiries@bctg.org.uk

Do we carry out marketing? 

If you register an interest with BCTG or through one of our subcontractors, you may be asked to opt-in to receive marketing communications. This is done at the point where your personal information is first collected. Within any marketing communications, you will be provided with a simple and transparent way to unsubscribe. Any changes you request to how your personal information is processed for the purposes of marketing and/or the provision of service updates will be acted on promptly.

Do we use 'cookies'?

Cookies are text files, which identify a user's computer to our servers. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer used.

Our website uses cookies for collecting user information which may include IP address, operating system and browser information. We use persistent cookies to track returning visitors. They expire after 12 months and enable us to compare website traffic from month to month.

Information on controlling or rejecting cookies is available from several websites, such as http://www.aboutcookies.org. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies – see the help section of your browser’s toolbar for further information.

How long do we keep your information for?

Unless stated otherwise in a privacy notice, we will keep your information based on the periods or criteria specified in BCTG’s Document Retention Policy.

Will changes be made to this privacy notice?

We keep our privacy notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page. This privacy notice was last updated on 13th December 2021.

How can you contact us or make a complaint to the regulator?

To contact us about our privacy notice or information we hold about you, please write:

  • by email – enquiries@bctg.org.uk
  • or by post – BCTG Limited, European Business Park, Taylors Lane, Oldbury, B69 2BN

If you don’t feel we have dealt with your request appropriately, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Data Protection Policy Group Policy

The following statement outlines the organisational policy across The BCTG Group. This includes BCTG Limited, PTP Training and Eurosource Solutions. It is also the policy adopted by Group Partner companies, Further Training and The Apprenticeship Works. From this, each individual business develops their own specific procedures to implement this policy.

Policy aim

The aims of this policy are to ensure that all staff and service users:

  1. Are clear about how personal data must be processed
  2. Comply with the data protection law and with good practice
  3. Protect The Group from risks of personal data breaches and other breaches of data protection law.

Principles Underpinning the Policy

The BCTG Group takes its responsibilities with regard to the management of the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) seriously. This policy sets out how we manage those responsibilities.

The BCTG group obtains, and uses as required under legislation, personal data relating to potential staff and learners, current staff and learners and former staff and learners. When processing personal data, the group is obliged to fulfil individuals’ reasonable expectations of privacy by complying with GDPR and other relevant data protection legislation (data protection law).

Implementation of the Policy

We will ensure that personal data is

  • Processed fairly and lawfully and transparently in relation to the data subject
  • Collected only for specified, lawful purposes and in a way which is not incompatible with those purposes
  • Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is processed
  • Accurate and up-to-date
  • Not kept not kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for any longer than is necessary for the purpose
  • Processed securely using appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage
  • Staff managing and handling personal information are appropriately trained to do so

Policy outcomes

  • Paper files and other records or documents containing personal/sensitive data will be kept in a secure
  • Personal data held on computers and computer systems will protected by the use of secure passwords
  • Confidential information is never left
  • Documents are marked appropriately in accordance with the Document Storage, Retention and Disposal
  • Confidential information which relates to our service users, is only discussed within the confines of their role and
  • Data protection training provided is understood and adhered