Privacy Policy

Personal information we collect

Personal information is any information that identifies a person. We collect personal information about people who are industry representatives, employers, interested parties and providers. We may collect the following:

• Name
• Contact details, for example, phone numbers, email address, postal and physical (work) address
• Relationship to organisations, for example, primary contact, moderation contact
• Job title and organisation
• Gender, and preferred pronouns
• Iwi, Hapu or Pacific Community
• Details of communications we have with you.

How we collect and receive your information

We will primarily collect your personal information directly from you.  We will collect your personal information through our website and when you engage with our staff and our services.  In particular, when you contact us, we may create a profile of you in our cloud-based customer relationship management system. The profile will hold the information we have collected from you and the information you have provided us. This includes your contact details and details of our communications with you.

We may receive your personal information from another organisation as set out below.

• If you have been involved with trainees, apprenticeships or Transitional Industry Training Organisations (TITO), then TITOs may have transitioned your business contact details to us.
• If your business is involved in providing vocational education training then we may have received your contact information from TITO, NZQA or the Tertiary Education Commission.
• Where you are involved with industry bodies or events, and you have given your consent, we may receive your contact details. For example, if you have attended a conference, seminar, event, or are a member of an industry body we may receive your contact information and use it as a contact with an interest in an industry or subject.
• Where you have contacted another organisation incorrectly, they may forward us your contact details if your enquiry relates to a function our WDCs perform, so that we may help you with your enquiry.

Occasionally, we may collect information about you from other third parties. These third parties may be the Ministry of Education, the TEC, providers, schools, Ministry of Social Development, Statistics New Zealand, Regional Skills Leadership Groups, Ministry or Business Employment and Innovation, or Centres of Vocational Excellence. We will only accept information in compliance with the Privacy Act 2020.

If we have received your information from another organisation we will contact you to let you know we have it. You have the right at any time to ask us to stop contacting you, and can ask us to delete your personal information. However, if we don’t hold sufficient information to contact you we will not be able to proactively engage with you.

What we use your information for

We collect personal information to fulfil our legal functions that are defined in the Education and Training Act 2020 and in the Orders in Council for our WDC. For example, we may use your personal information to:

• ask your opinion on areas of interest related to vocational education
• present offers or invite you to participate in industry and vocational education activities
• seek your participation in the review of Standards or Qualifications
• request the submission of information related to externally moderating standards
• send you information updates or routine newsletters
• send you information to access useful resources
• request information to help us undertake research or analysis
• ask you to assist us to help understand industry preferences and interests
• target our marketing and let you know about the work our WDCs do
• manage our relationship with you.

We may also use the information we hold about you:

• for statistical or research purposes. Any insight or findings from this research will only be published in a way that will not identify you
• to fulfil our obligations under the Education and Training Act 2020.

Sharing your information

All WDCs are required under the Education and Training Act 2020 to work together on areas of common interest. To enable this to happen, information about your industry, your business and the contact information we hold may be shared with other WDCs.

We may disclose some of your personal information to NZQA or the TEC in order to fulfil our legislative functions. At all times, we’ll only disclose your personal information if you allow us, or if we are required to by law.

We may provide your personal information to our employees, contractors, advisors, agents, and third party service providers where we believe this is appropriate to help us fulfil our statutory functions. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that those recipients do not use your personal information for any other purpose.

We may also disclose your personal information when we believe this is appropriate for legal compliance and law enforcement (including to government agencies with statutory law enforcement responsibilities), or to assist with court proceedings, enforce or protect or others.

Storage and security

We use cloud computing to manage and store information. We operate our cloud computing according to New Zealand Government standards. We take all reasonable precautions to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We do this by:

• having strong external and internal premises security
• storing information in access-controlled systems and limiting staff interaction with data
• ongoing auditing of our use of personal information
• providing training on the Privacy Act to our staff.

We may hold your personal information in software and on servers managed by Microsoft. You can find details of Microsoft’s Privacy Policy here. Microsoft Privacy Statement – Microsoft Privacy.

We may use Google Analytics, a service provided by Google Inc. You can opt out by disabling first-party cookies in your web browser, however, this may affect your use of websites. If you do not disable cookies, you consent to Google processing the data about your use of the website. Information about your use of the website is transmitted to, and stored by Google on servers in the United States. You can find details of Google’s Privacy & Terms here.

Accessing your personal information

You have the right to request access to any personal information we hold about you, and to ask for it to be corrected or removed if you think it is wrong. If you would like to request your information or seek corrections, please let us know. Our details are on the Contact page of our website.

Records

The information we hold about you may constitute public records and will be retained to the extent required by the Public Records Act 2005. We may be required to disclose personal information under the Official Information Act 1982 or to a Parliamentary Select Committee in response to a Parliamentary Question.

Recruitment

Personal information is required to assess your application and your suitability for employment with a Workforce Development Council. It will be kept, used and disclosed only in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and the Public Records Act 2005.

All information you provide as part of your application will be treated as confidential and used only for the purpose it is collected. If your application is successful, this information will be kept on your personal file and can be used for the purposes of your employment with us.

Contact us

If you have any questions about privacy or the management of your personal information (including the information we collect and hold about you), you can contact us here.