Privacy Policy

This privacy statement describes how e-skills UK collects, uses and safeguards information you provide when using our e-skills Passport website(s).

We collect two types of information from you:
• information you submit to us; and
• information our site gathers automatically.

Information collection and use
When you register for our services we need to know your name, postal address and email address together with other information as indicated on the registration form. By completing the registration form you will be asked to confirm that we may use your information in accordance with this privacy statement.

If you do not consent then you may be prevented at some time in the future from accessing our web site and will be prohibited from purchasing and/or using the Content and Services.

When you use our Services on the Site, you may be asked to provide information and replies which will be used by us in providing our services. We gather this information to allow us to process your registration, process any orders you may make and to provide our services.

The relevant information is also used by us to provide you with statements of your skills profile and generate your e-skills Passport and to communicate with you on any matter relating to the conduct of your account and the provision of the Services on this Site.

In order to keep your e-skills Passport updated you should inform us of any IT related qualifications you have obtained or any courses you go on. Where you have provided us with qualification details you hereby consent to us contacting the relevant awarding body and disclosing the information you have provided purely for the purpose of verifying the qualification. If you are on a course with certain participating awarding bodies you hereby consent that e-skills and such awarding bodies may disclose information about you in order to automatically update your Passport with your qualification achievements from such course.

We may share such information with third parties engaged by us to assist with the provision of the Services to you.

Aggregated statistical information
We may use the information supplied by you and combine it with information supplied by other users to create aggregated statistical information which we may collate and distribute to interested third parties including government departments, universities and other academic bodies.

Such collated statistics will not include individually identifiable information that would reveal anything personal about you. The registration process requests that you provide sensitive information, for example, date of birth, gender, origin etc which will be used for the purposes of generating the aggregated statistical information referred to above.

Such aggregated statistical information may be presented in reports and used by government to help identify training needs and help shape training and skills policies and may be used by academic institutions to provide training courses in areas where the aggregated statistical information shows that there is a need.

Tracking data
As you browse our web site we log your IP address (the Internet address of your computer not the e- mail address) and other standard tracking data to evaluate which parts of our site you visit and how long you stay there.

This information is aggregated with tracking data from all site visitors to measure number of visits, average time spent on this web site, pages viewed, etc. in order to help us develop the website and our services and may provide such information to third parties.

Special features and third party services
We may also wish to provide you with information about special features of our website or any other related services or products we think may be of interest to you. If you would rather not receive this information, please use the Contact Us form on this site to state that you don't wish to receive this type of information.

We may also want to provide you with related information from third parties we think may be of interest to you including subsidiary companies and affiliated organizations and share with them information you submit to us.  If you would rather not receive this information, please use the Contact Us form on this site to state that you do not wish to receive this type of information.

Other transfer of information
We may also share your output data from your e-skills Passport with local mentors such as your Business Link.

We may pass on information you have provided to us to governmental agencies or third parties who have legal authority to request and receive such information or where we are required to do so by law.

Other than referred to in this Privacy Policy it is our policy not to disclose any individually identifiable information about site users to third parties without specific permission to do so. We do not sell users' names or email addresses to other companies to use to send unsolicited advertisements or mail.

Sponsor Organisations
If your employer and or training provider has paid or intends to pay for your e-skills Passport  or is providing the training we will consider them as a sponsor organisation. Although your sponsor organisation may pay for your e-skills Passport you will be the e-skills Passport holder and will have the right personally to hold the e- skills Passport for its term.

We will share with your sponsor organisation your information together with the results of your self assessment including skill levels, qualifications and training needs.

We will cease to provide your sponsor employer with your information if your employment with such employer ends provided you advise us in writing of the date your employment is to end.

We may supply any new employer and or training provider with your information unless you request us not to do so in writing. We may advise any new employer and or training provider of your instructions not to disclose your information if your new employer and or training provider requests us to provide your information.

Passport Office
In addition to sharing information referred to under the paragraph headed sponsor organisation above, some sponsor organisations may utilise the Passport Office facility which will allow the sponsor organisation’s nominated representatives to administer the passport site in relation to passport holders in its organisation.

These sponsor organisation administrators will be provided with special access to enable them to view passport holders data relating to their skills profiles, qualifications and skills gaps.

This is information e-skills would normally provide the sponsor organisation in the form of a report, but can be accessed direct by the sponsor organisation through the passport office facility.

You can have more than one sponsor organisation, and you can add a sponsor organisation by providing your Passport number and surname to an organisation using Passport Office, the organisation can “import” your Passport to their organisation. All sponsor organisations are independent of  e-skills and therefore e-skills is not responsible for what the sponsor organisation does with your information.

Registration
During registration a user is required to give contact information (such as name and email address) together with other information as may be requested in the registration form some of which may be mandatory and some voluntary as indicated.

Users are encouraged to provide the voluntary information so we can provide a more personalised experience. This information is used to contact the user about the services on our site for which they have expressed interest.

Enquiry and order forms
We request information from users on both our enquiry and order forms. Users provide contact information (such as name and delivery address) and financial information (such as credit card number and expiry date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fulfil customer orders. If we have trouble processing an order, this contact information is used to get in touch with the user.

Cookies
A cookie is a coded piece of software information, stored on your computer that identifies your computer during the current and subsequent visits to a web site. Some of our business partners may also use cookies on our site (for example, training content providers). We have no access to or control over these cookies.
If you do not want your browser to accept cookies, you can turn off the cookie acceptance option in your browser settings. NOTE: Disabling cookie support may prevent this web site from functioning properly and you may not be able to utilise fully all of its features and information.

Log files
We use IP website addresses for research to analyse trends, administer the site, track user's movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP website addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
 
Links
This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that e-skills UK is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of these third party sites. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by the e-skills Passport website.

Surveys and contests
From time-to-time our site requests information from users via feedback or surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose any information requested.

Information requested may include contact information (such as name and delivery address), and demographic information (such as postcode, age level). Contact information will be used to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey and feedback information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the functionality of the site.

Security
This website takes every precaution to protect our users' information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and off-line.

When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number), that information is encrypted and is protected with best practice encryption software in the industry - SSL.

While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, as will be the case for most of the time that a user is browsing the web.

If you have any questions about the security at our website, please contact us with your questions.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information
If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postcode), or if a user no longer desires our service, we will endeavour to provide a way to correct, update or remove that user's personal data provided to us.  This can be done by using the contact us form on this site stating your requests for changes.

Notification of changes
If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes on our homepage so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under which circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

Your consent
By submitting your information, you consent to the use of that information as set out in this policy.