Students

Privacy

Why we collect your personal information

As a registered training organisation (RTO), we collect your personal information so we can process and manage your enrolment in a vocational education and training (VET) course with us. If you do not provide the required personal information we will not be able to enrol you as a student.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to enable us to deliver VET courses to you, and otherwise, as needed, to comply with our obligations as an RTO.

How we disclose your personal information

We are required by law (under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (Cth) (NVETR Act)) to disclose the personal information we collect about you to the National VET Data Collection kept by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd (NCVER). The NCVER is responsible for collecting, managing, analysing and communicating research and statistics about the Australian VET sector.

We are also authorised by law (under the NVETR Act) to disclose your personal information to the relevant state or territory training authority.

How the NCVER and other bodies handle your personal information

The NCVER will collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with the law, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the NVETR Act. Your personal information may be used and disclosed by NCVER for purposes that include populating authenticated VET transcripts; administration of VET; facilitation of statistics and research relating to education, including surveys and data linkage; and understanding the VET market. The NCVER is authorised to disclose information to the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE), Commonwealth authorities, State and Territory authorities (other than registered training organisations) that deal with matters relating to VET and VET regulators for the purposes of those bodies, including to enable:

  • administration of VET, including program administration, regulation, monitoring and evaluation
  • facilitation of statistics and research relating to education, including surveys and data linkage
  • understanding how the VET market operates, for policy, workforce planning and consumer information.

The NCVER may also disclose personal information to persons engaged by NCVER to conduct research on NCVER’s behalf. The NCVER does not intend to disclose your personal information to any overseas recipients. For more information about how the NCVER will handle your personal information please refer to the NCVER’s Privacy Policy at www.ncver.edu.au/privacy. If you would like to seek access to or correct your information, in the first instance, please contact your RTO using the contact details listed below. 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. If you can’t access the privacy notice, please ask Coffs Coast Community College for a print out.

Surveys

You may receive a student survey which may be run by a government department or an NCVER employee, agent, third-party contractor or another authorised agency. Please note you may opt out of the survey at the time of being contacted.

At any time, you may contact Coffs Coast Community College to:

  •  request access to your personal information
  • correct your personal information
  • make a complaint about how your personal information has been handled
  •  ask a question about this Privacy Notice.

The College is committed to maintaining confidentiality, integrity and security of all personal information entrusted to it in the normal course of its work. We will not give out personal information to any person, body or agency without your permission, unless we are required to do so by law. We will not use your personal information for any purpose other than that for which it was collected, unless we are required to do so by law.

We are required to provide some statistical information about our students to the Government, to help with the future planning of education. Your enrolment is allocated a special coded number to protect your privacy.

Records of student VET training and assessment are held for a minimum of 30 years as either hard copy (securely stored) and/or electronic files

If you wish to access your records you should inform the Training and Compliance Manager.

Use and disclosure of personal information

Sensitive personal information will only be collected as required from students, is treated as confidential within the College and is used for the purpose for which it was collected or for a related purpose. This includes:

  • providing the training services
  • informing students about additional or upcoming courses available
  • gathering feedback from students regarding training for the College’s market analysis and course development.

The College does not disclose sensitive personal information to other third parties without permission or instruction from the student unless required by Law to do so. If you wish to authorise a third party to access your records please contact the Manager.

Information about students from third parties

The College may need to source or verify information about students from a third party. Wherever possible this will be done with the student’s authorisation, or if not possible, the College will inform the student when such information is collected.

Third Party Information Requests

No staff member is to release any information about students to any third party unless prior written authorisation is obtained from the student or disclosure is required by law.

Authorised Third Parties:

Students may nominate third parties they wish to access their records. This process is conducted by the College Manager who ensures a third party access form is completed and the security details for the third party obtained. These details will be entered into the student’s file.

Any staff member who receives a request for information from a person claiming to be authorised must verify this authorisation and any related conditions through either a password or question list check prior to releasing any information.

Other Third Parties

Staff must not release any information to any other third party requesting student information. The College Manager will obtain details of the request and detail these to the student to determine whether they wish to authorise access through a written consent form.

Receiving marketing information

With students’ consent, the College may provide them with information from time to time about new courses available to them.

Students’ consent to this will be implied unless they notify the College that they do not wish to receive this information. You may do this by advising the College Manager that you do not wish to receive marketing information.

Security of personal information

In line with new technology, the College continually improves the security of personal information collected. The College takes all reasonable steps to protect the personal information of persons by:

  • securing all files with personal information in locked cabinets
  • only providing staff with access to personal information
  • destroying information after the required retention period
  • ensuring computer security at all times by the use of firewalls and up to date virus software
  • password access to the computer system
  • audits of the computer systems
  • not releasing information to third parties without prior written authorisation.

Rights to access information

Under the Privacy Act, students have the right to access personal information held about them. If the information is incorrect, they have the right to require the College to amend the information.

To access this information students are required to contact the College Manager and complete a request for access form. The College Manager must verify the student’s identity through either presentation of appropriate identification or answering a series of specific targeted questions. The request for access form must be signed by both the student and the College Manager as an official record of the access and identity verification. There may be a waiting period of up to 7 days before access is granted.

Student Information Requests

The College Manager is responsible for the processing of all requests for student information from students.

These requests require the completion of a request for access form and the verification of the students identity through either sighting of appropriate photo ID or the correct answering of a checklist of questions derived from the student’s personal details.

These questions are:

  • Full Name
  • Student Number
  • Date of Birth
  • Address (home and semester)
  • Phone Number (home and semester)

The College Manager and the student must both sign the request form as an official record of identification. The College Manager may also, if deemed necessary, further ensure the student’s identification through a signature comparison with their enrolment form.

The College Manager is to notify the student when access is available. The College Manager and the student must both again sign the form upon access as a record of such access. This form is then to be placed in the student’s file for future reference.

Staff Confidentiality

The College complies with the Privacy Act 2001. Information collected on clients is only used for the purpose of delivery of our services. Staff must be aware of this act and its requirements and must at all times ensure student information remains confidential.

Further information

To obtain further information about the Privacy Policy or access to personal information, please contact the Manager.