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Privacy Notice

Who are UCQ?

University Centre Quayside (UCQ) is a private education and training provider, delivering high-quality further and higher education programmes since 2008.  The website is www.ucq.ac.uk and is provided and controlled by UCQ. 

Data and Privacy Policy

UCQ recognises and respects the importance of the privacy of visitors to our websites. Our Data and Privacy Policy sets out how we use and protect your personal data, your privacy rights and how you are protected by law.  We wish to ensure all visitors feel safe when using the website and we are committed to ensure your privacy is protected.  If you have any concerns, or you wish further clarification, please contact our Data Protection Officer, Guy Parkin, at dataprotection@ucq.ac.uk

We will ensure we:

  • Keep your data safe
  • Only use your data for the reason it was provided
  • Never sell your data to third-party organisations
  • Abide by data protection legislation

Personal data will not be disclosed to anyone outside of UCQ without your consent unless permitted or required under applicable legislation.

We delete, in accordance with our Data Retention Schedule, when it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected and subsequently processed.

If you have submitted personal data to us, e.g. when registering for a newsletter, enquiring about a course, you enjoy certain rights to access and rectify data, subject to legal limitations.

We have implemented appropriate organisational and technical security measures to protect your personal data. We adopt appropriate data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures to protect unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction of your personal information.  We store personal data on servers with limited access located in secured facilities, and our security measures are tested and evaluated on an ongoing basis. Servers are protected by a range of measures including anti-virus software and firewalls.  UCQ have also been awarded Cyber Essential accreditation.

Data Protection Law

As well as through our Data and Privacy Policy, your privacy is protected by law.

The Data Protection Act, 2018, is the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Everyone responsible for using personal data has to follow strict rules called ‘data protection principles’. They must make sure the information is: used fairly, lawfully and transparently.  Organisations are accountable for the protection of your personal data, and provide you with more rights as to how data is collected, used, retained and destroyed.

The law states we are allowed to collect and use your personal data only if we have a reason to do so; when it is our legal duty; when it is in our legitimate interest; or when you provide consent.

In terms of the information we hold for you as a training provider, this is no different to that held by other educational institutions including schools, colleges and universities.   

Personal Identification Information

We may collect personal identification information from users in a variety of ways, including but not limited to, website visitors, enquiries, enrolments, subscription to newsletters and in connection with other activities, services and resources we make available on our site.  The personal information we may collect and hold includes:

  • Personal information: name, date of birth, NI numbers, address, email, telephone, emergency contact, benefit evidence;
  • Special categories of data including: gender, age, ethnic group;
  • Progression information: employment; courses; qualifications;
  • Employment information: business name, contact, job description, working hours, salary;
  • Financial information: bank details

Our websites are intended for a general audience, and UCQ does not knowingly collect personal data about any person under the age of 18 years.

Users may visit our site anonymously.  We will only collect personal identification information from users if they voluntarily submit such information to us.  Users can refuse to provide personal information, although it may prevent them in engaging in site-related activities/enquiries/courses.

We process personal data for the following purposes:

  • Enquiries and provision of UCQ services, courses and products
  • Accommodation of your requests and enquiries
  • Provision of newsletters and other information offered by UCQ
  • The purposes listed in the below cookie section

Organisations with whom we may share your personal information

UCQ will never sell your data.  We will only share information with organisations with whom we are legally required as an educational provider.  These may include:

  • The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)
  • The Apprenticeship Service
  • The National Apprenticeship Service
  • The Learner Records Service
  • Apprenticeship Certification England
  • Awarding Organisations
  • Prime Contractors
  • Devolved Authorities
  • Employers
  • Ofsted
  • Office for Students (OFS)
  • Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)
  • Office for the Independent Adjudicator (OIA)
  • The Student Loans Company
  • Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)

Marketing

Once you have opted to receiving marketing information from UCQ, we may use your personal information to inform you of relevant opportunities.  For learners this may be a vacancy with an employer that may be suitable, or for the opportunity to progress to higher or additional qualifications. For employers this may be to survey your training needs, or to match suitable candidates or training programmes to your business.  You can ask us to stop contacting or update your choices at any time by contacting us.

Post Enrolment

We keep information in accordance with our Data Retention Schedule.  We will collect data while you are studying with UCQ.  This includes your achievement and progression data.  We collect this data initially for our funding partners.

Working at UCQ

While employed at UCQ we will keep your application information; right to work evidence i.e. passport, birth certificate; qualifications and certification; health information; and CPD data to enable us to administrate your contract of employment. 

We may also share your CV/CPD information with funding and awarding organisations. 

We will retain this information in accordance with our Data Retention Schedule.

Website

UCQ make all reasonable efforts to ensure that the information on the website is correct and current. Please note that content may change. 

All materials on the website are copyright of UCQ or reproduced with permission from copyright holders. All rights are reserved. The materials on the website may be retrieved and downloaded solely for personal use.  No materials may otherwise be copied, amended, published or reproduced without prior permission of UCQ.

Cookies

Our websites use cookies. A cookie is a small file which a website may store on your computer in order for your computer to remember the website at future visits.  Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, however you can block or remove cookies yourself by altering your settings.

Functional cookies remember your preferred settings and credentials or allow you to share information with other websites with which you may have an account e.g. Facebook/Twitter.  You can block or remove cookies by changing your account settings, although some functionality may not work if cookies are blocked.

We use the following performance cookies:

  • Google Analytics (provided by Google Inc) enable us to: perform statistical analyses of e.g. number of visitors, information on gender, age, location, interests and the like to learn about our visitors and; improve the website friendliness and usability, e.g. on the basis of website traffic measurements
  • Google Adwords (provided by Google Inc) enables us to see which pages led to our users submitting contact forms to us, which allows us to create a more effective marketing campaign and make better use of our paid search budget.
  • Vimeo (provided by Vimeo Inc.) to store session preferences (e.g. language) and suggest other content based on your previous uses (only activated when you are logged in to Youtube when visiting our website and only when clicking the YouTube button)
  • Facebook (provided by Facebook, Inc.) to identify users logged in to Facebook for the purpose of sharing content on Facebook (only when you are logged in to Facebook when visiting our website and only when clicking the Facebook button)
  • LinkedIn (provided by LinkedIn Corp.) to enable the “follow” and “share” features of LinkedIn (only when you are logged in to LinkedIn when visiting our website and only when clicking the LinkedIn button).
  • Twitter (provided by Twitter, Inc) to enable the “follow” and “share” features of Twitter (only when you are logged in to Twitter).

You may delete cookies if you no longer wish to store them on your computer. However, please note that the high quality of our website may be reduced as a consequence thereof. Please refer to the help guide for your browser for further guidance.