Skills Bootcamps - Privacy Notice

Issued by the Department of Education

See the Privacy Notice Q&A for more information.

Who we are

This privacy notice explains how we collect and use your personal information for the purposes of evaluating the Employer Led Training Initiatives/Skills Bootcamps. This data is being collected by the DfE for the National Skills Fund.

For the purposes of relevant data protection legislation, the Department for Education (DfE) is the data controller for personal information processed for this research. More information about how the DfE handles personal information is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/personal-information-charter

Why we collect your personal information

We are collecting data on Skills Bootcamp applicants, candidates, and participants to help the DfE understand how well the courses are working and if they are achieving their outcomes. This is important because it allows us to be transparent about how government spends public money and measures the impact that policies are having, as well as helping us make improvements to future training courses. This data also helps us check if the people who are on the course do complete the course and ensures that the correct amount of funding is paid.

The nature of your personal data we will be using

As part of the data collection we are asking for your personal data;

• national insurance number,
• first name,
• surname,
• postcode and
• date of birth
• education and qualifications information
• earnings and employment information
• benefits information
• caring responsibilities

The special category data we will be processing includes:

• gender
• disability and
• ethnicity

As part of our work to evaluate the effectiveness of Skills Bootcamps in supporting people to gain employment and higher incomes we will link this data to records on education and training, income, employment and benefits which are held by the Department for Education, the Department of Work and Pensions and Her Majesty’s revenue and customs. This is to evaluate the programme’s overall impact. For more information on this, please look at our supplementary materials.

Our legal basis for collecting your personal information

We collect personal information only where we need to and law permits. In order for our use of your personal data to be lawful, we need to meet conditions in the data protection legislation. For the purpose of this programme, the relevant condition(s) that we are meeting are:

1. Article 6 (1)(e): It is necessary to collect data from users in order to effectively access the service and to evaluate outcomes of the service. The legal basis is public task and the legal gateway is Section 87 of the Education and Skills Act 2008.
2. Article 6 (1)(f): It is necessary to collect data from users as the processing is necessary for the organisation’s legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s individual data that overrides those legitimate interests.

And for the processing of special category data:

3. Article 9(2)(g) of the GDPR, and Schedule 1, Part 2 paragraph 8 of the Data Protection Act 2018: to ensure equality of opportunity or treatment.

We may request your participation in interviews and surveys as part of the evaluation of the programme. We may request your participation to make checks to ensure that the correct amount of funding is paid.

How we use your personal information

Personal information collected from research participants is treated as confidential and collected for research purposes contract management assurance purposes and to prevent the risk of fraud. Any information shared publicly will be anonymised so you cannot be identified.

DfE (and its contracted research organisation) will use the data for policy development and to help improve education services. We may publish the findings for use by other relevant organisations and for the purposes of transparency in how we are using public funds. None of you individualized data will be identified.

How long we will keep your personal data

We will keep your personal data in its original format for a maximum of 3 years, after which point it will be securely destroyed. A pseudonymised version of your personal data to be used for research purposes will be kept for a maximum of 20 years. We will conduct reviews every 5 years to test if it necessary to still retain this data. For qualitative interviews, DfE (or its contracted research supplier) will review the notes, recordings and other research data after the session. Voice recordings will be deleted by the research contractor as soon as they are transcribed and no later than one year after the interview has taken place.

Who we will make your personal data available to

We sometimes need to make personal data available to other organisations. These include contracted partners whom we may employ to process your personal data on our behalf and/or other organisations (with whom we need to share your personal data for specific purposes). We plan to track participants’ longer-term outcomes through links to administrative data held by DfE, DWP and HMRC.

Where we need to share your personal data with others, we ensure that this sharing complies with data protection legislation. For the purposes of this project, we need to share your personal data with external evaluators who will;

• analyse your personal data on behalf of DfE to evaluate digital skills bootcamp provider and participant outcomes, to contribute to improving the next wave of provision.
• follow up with you directly to invite you to take part in qualitative interviews or a survey to understand your experience of participating in the Skills Bootcamps. Participation in surveys and/or interviews is voluntary and you can opt out by requesting this from our 3rd party contractor.

Request to access, rectify or erase your information

This service is optional for individuals to use. As part of the public task and legitimate interest purposes we collect personal information and use this to link to government administrative records on income, employment and benefits. If participants decide they do not want their data used on an ongoing basis for research they can notify the department and withdraw from the training. No further data will be collected/linked on that individual beyond that point.

Our privacy notices make clear how data is processed once it is received by the Department. Special category data collection will include a ‘prefer not to say’ option, this means that the individuals have the free will to choose whether to provide it or not.

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you are entitled to ask if we hold information relating to you and ask for a copy, by making a ‘subject access request’.

Your data protection rights:

• The right to access: you are entitled to ask if we hold information relating to you and ask for a copy by making a “subject access request.”
• The right to rectification: you have the right to request to correct any information you believe is inaccurate.
• The right to erasure: you have the right to request for your information to be erased, under certain circumstances.
• The right to restrict processing: you have the right to request that DfE restricts the processing of your personal data, under certain circumstances.
• The right to object to processing: you have the right to object to DfE’s processing, under certain circumstances.
• The right to data portability: You have the right to move your personal data to another data controller

For further information and how to request your data, please use the ‘contact form’ in the Personal Information Charter at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/personal-information-charter under ‘How to find out what personal information we hold about you’ section.

We will respond to your request within one month of receiving it. If your request is complex we may extend the period by a further 2 months but will let you know we are doing this.

You can also find more information from the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/

For further information about this Privacy Notice or queries about how DfE handles your personal information, please contact our Data Protection Officer at https://form.education.gov.uk/service/Contact_the_Department_for_Education or write to our postal address : Department for Education Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, LONDON, SW1P 3BT