Privacy Policy

The Australian College of Professionals appreciates that privacy is important to everyone. The College is committed to handling personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This Privacy Policy applies to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by the College. In this policy “you” refers to any person about whom the College collects personal information.

What information does the Australian College of Professionals collect about students and prospective students?

When you enrol in a course or program of study, the College will collect personal information about you, such as your name, address, contact details (including your phone number and email address), date of birth, citizenship, educational history and results, work history (if relevant), emergency contact details, details of your parent(s) or guardian(s) (for students who are under 18 years of age at the time of enrolment), and credit card details.

The College may also collect personal information which is necessary for particular products or services you request from the College (for example, when you register for specific government funded programs). The College will collect personal information during the course of dealing with you, for example, as you progress through a course or program of study. The College may collect other personal information about you which is considered sensitive information (for example, information about whether you identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander; information which may disclose your racial or ethnic origin (such as your proficiency in languages other than English); information about your health or a disability where this is relevant to accommodating your needs; information about whether you or a dependant are experiencing, or have experienced domestic or family violence; and information that may disclose your membership of a professional or industry association (such as when assessing your eligibility for course credit or exemption)).

The College may also collect government related identifiers, such as your driver’s licence number, passport number (if relevant), or student concession number, which are necessary to verify your identity, to confirm your eligibility for enrolment, or to assess or administer your entitlement to financial assistance.

Collection of your personal information may be required by law for the purpose of reporting to Commonwealth, State and Territory government agencies for planning, evaluative, administrative and funding purposes.

The College generally collects personal information directly from you. It may be necessary for the College to also collect personal information about you from third parties, for example:

• from schools and other educational institutions where necessary to verify qualifications and course credits for enrolment and assessment purposes;

• from organisations where you may be completing a work placement, internship or practical component of your course or program of study;

• from your employer if your course or program of study is being supported by them or incorporated into your employment;

• from professional associations of which you are a member or seeking membership.

The College also collects personal information about you from third-parties for the purpose of direct marketing of our services.

Where it is lawful to do so, we may monitor and record your communications with us (including email and telephone) for security and dispute resolution purposes.

Can you deal with the Australian College of Professionals anonymously?

You have the option of not identifying yourself, or using a pseudonym, when dealing with the College (for example, when making an enquiry). However, it is generally not practicable or lawful for the College to deal with you anonymously on an ongoing basis (for example, if you wish to enrol in and complete a course or program of study). If the College does not collect personal information about you, we may be unable to provide you with the services you have asked us to provide.

How does the College maintain personal information about you?

The College maintains personal information about you in paper-based and electronic records and systems. Personal information may be collected in paper-based documents and converted to electronic form for storage (with the original paper-based documents either archived or securely destroyed).

Information held in paper-based form is generally securely stored at the College or in the case of archived records, at an external storage facility in New South Wales. The external storage company contracted by the College uses physical security and other measures to ensure that personal information is protected from misuse, interference and loss; and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

Information held in electronic form is held on servers controlled by the College in Sydney. The College uses physical security, password protection and other measures to ensure that personal information stored in electronic form is protected from misuse, interference and loss; and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

Visitors to our website

People can generally visit the College website without revealing who they are or providing any personal information. The College will not collect any personal information about visitors to the website, except when such visitors take steps to provide personal information to the College (for example, by logging in to the website or when submitting an enquiry with your contact details). Information provided through the College website will be collected, held, used and disclosed in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Why does the College collect and hold the personal information of students and prospective students?

The College collects and holds your personal information for the purpose of providing you with the products, services or information you have requested from the College and to manage and administer the products and services we provide. Your information may be held by the College after you have ceased to be a student or client to satisfy legal or regulatory record-keeping obligations or, for example, to enable the College to confirm or verify your participation in or completion of a course or program.
Under the Data Provision Requirements 2012, the Australian College of Professionals 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 the College’s enrolment form and your training activity data) may be used or disclosed by the Australian College of Professionals for statistical, regulatory and research purposes. The Australian College of Professionals may disclose your personal information for these purposes to third parties, including:

• 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

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 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).

As part of the Student Declaration and Consent on your enrolment form, each student makes the following declaration:

I declare that the information I have provided to the best of my knowledge is true and correct. I consent to the collection, use and disclosure of my personal information in accordance with the Privacy Notice above.

USI (Unique Student Identifier)

Your Unique Student Identifier (USI) account contains personal information, contact details and access to your training records and results (transcript). The USI Registry System has been designed to keep this information safe and secure and is only accessed by those organisations listed in the terms and conditions.

The USI Registry System also allows you to choose which training organisations can see this information and when.

Please review our USI information page for further information

How does the College use and disclose your personal information?

The College may use your personal information for the purposes disclosed at the time of collection, or otherwise as set out in this Privacy Policy. The College will not use your personal information for any other purpose without first seeking your consent, unless authorised or required by law.

Generally, the College will only use or disclose your personal information as follows:

• to provide the products, services or information you have requested from the College, including for the purposes of enrolling you, assessing your progress, tracking your attendance, issuing your results, and providing certificates of completion and testamurs, for your course(s) and program(s) of study.
• To verify to third parties who make enquiries of the College as to whether individuals have completed a course or program of study at the College (for example, where a potential employer is verifying a qualification or claimed qualification or you are enrolling in another educational institution

The College endeavours to keep your personal information accurate, up-to-date and complete. You can assist with this by letting the College know if you notice errors or discrepancies in information we hold about you and providing accurate information if your details change.

However, if you consider any personal information that is held by the College to be inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading you are entitled to request correction of the information. After receiving a request from you, the College will take reasonable steps to correct your information.

If you wish to have your personal information removed from our records, you may request that your personal information be deleted or destroyed. It will not always be possible to comply with your request to delete or destroy your personal information (for example, records of a course or program of study you have undertaken must be retained by the College for the period(s) that are specified by applicable legislative and regulatory requirements). The College may refuse your request to access, correct or delete your personal information in certain circumstances. If your request is refused, the College will provide you with a reason for the decision.

How can you access or seek correction of your personal information?

Generally, if you are a student or client and have a simple enquiry about your personal information (such as confirming your current contact details or confirming results from your course or program) please contact the College. You are entitled to access your personal information held by the College on request. To request access to your personal information, please contact the Training Manager at the College.

In limited circumstances, access to your personal information may be declined in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. You will not be charged for making a request to access your personal information but you may be charged for the reasonable time and expense incurred in compiling information in response to your request.

What should you do if you have a complaint about the handling of your personal information?

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or how your personal information has been handled by the College, you may contact the Training Manager of the College at any time.

If you have contacted the College and your question or concern has not been able to be resolved to your satisfaction, you may make a complaint to the College Principal. The College Principal will consider and respond to your complaint within a reasonable period. If you are not satisfied with the response from the College to a complaint, or you consider that the College may have breached the Australian Privacy Principles or the Privacy Act, you are entitled to make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner can be contacted by telephone on 1300 363 992. Full contact details for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner can be found online at www.oaic.gov.au.

How are changes to this Privacy Policy made?

The College may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time, with or without notice to you. It is recommended that you visit this website regularly to keep up to date with any changes. If the College has collected personal information about you from third parties, it will only be used for direct marketing purposes with your consent (unless an exception applies). If the College uses your personal information in this way, we will give you the opportunity in each direct marketing communication to request not to receive further direct marketing communications.

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