The Victorian Government, through the Department of Education and Training (the Department), develops, monitors and funds vocational education and training (VET) in Victoria. The Victorian Government is committed to ensuring that Victorians have access to appropriate and relevant VET services. Any personal information collected by the Department for VET purposes is protected in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).

Collection of your data

Edge Workforce Pty Ltd is required to provide the Department with student and training activity data. This includes personal information collected in the Edge Workforce Pty Ltd enrolment form and unique identifiers such as the Victorian Student Number (VSN) and the Commonwealth's Unique Student Identifier (USI).

Edge Workforce Pty Ltd provides data to the Department in accordance with the Victorian VET Student Statistical Collection Guidelines, available at http://www.education.vic.gov.au/training/providers/rto/Pages/datacollection.aspx.

Use of your data

The Department uses student and training data, including personal information, for a range of VET purposes including administration, monitoring and planning, including the interaction between the Department and Student where appropriate.

The data may also be subjected to data analytics, which seeks to determine the likelihood of certain events occurring (such as program or subject completion), which may be relevant to the services provided to the student.

Disclosure of your data

As necessary and where lawful, the Department may disclose VET data, including personal information, to its contractors, other government agencies, professional bodies and/or other organisations for VET-related purposes.  In particular, this includes disclosure of VET student and training data to the Commonwealth and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).

Legal and Regulatory

The Department's collection and handling of enrolment data and VSNs are authorised under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic). The Department is also authorised to collect and handle USIs in accordance with the Student Identifiers Act 2014 (Cth) and the Student Identifiers Regulation 2014 (Cth).

Survey participation

You may be contacted to participate in a survey conducted by NCVER or a Department-endorsed project, audit or review relating to your training. This provides valuable feedback on the delivery of VET programs in Victoria. Please note you may opt-out of the NCVER survey at the time of being contacted.

Consequences of not providing your information

Failure to provide your personal information may mean that you can't enrol in VET and/or to obtain a Victorian Government VET subsidy.

Disability Supplement

Disability in this context does not include short-term disabling health conditions such as a fractured leg, influenza, or corrected physical conditions such as impaired vision managed by wearing glasses or lenses.

‘Hearing/deaf’

Hearing impairment is used to refer to a person who has an acquired mild, moderate, severe or profound hearing loss after learning to speak, communicates orally and maximises residual hearing with the assistance of amplification. A person who is deaf has a severe or profound hearing loss from, at, or near birth and mainly relies upon vision to communicate, whether through lip reading, gestures, cued speech, finger spelling and/or sign language.

‘Physical’

A physical disability affects the mobility or dexterity of a person and may include a total or partial loss of a part of the body. A physical disability may have existed since birth or may be the result of an accident, illness, or injury suffered later in life; for example, amputation, arthritis, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, paraplegia, quadriplegia or post-polio syndrome.

‘Intellectual’

In general, the term ‘intellectual disability’ is used to refer to low general intellectual functioning and difficulties in adaptive behaviour, both of which conditions were manifested before the person reached the age of 18. It may result from infection before or after birth, trauma during birth, or illness.

‘Learning’

A general term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities. These disorders are intrinsic to the individual, presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur across the life span. Problems in self-regulatory behaviours, social perception, and social interaction may exist with learning disabilities but do not by themselves constitute a learning disability.

‘Mental illness’

Mental illness refers to a cluster of psychological and physiological symptoms that cause a person suffering or distress and which represent a departure from a person’s usual pattern and level of functioning.

‘Acquired brain impairment’

Acquired brain impairment is injury to the brain that results in deterioration in cognitive, physical, emotional or independent functioning. Acquired brain impairment can occur as a result of trauma, hypoxia, infection, tumour, accidents, violence, substance abuse, degenerative neurological diseases or stroke. These impairments may be either temporary or permanent and cause partial or total disability or psychosocial maladjustment.

‘Vision’

This covers a partial loss of sight causing difficulties in seeing, up to and including blindness. This may be present from birth or acquired as a result of disease, illness or injury.

‘Medical condition’

Medical condition is a temporary or permanent condition that may be hereditary, genetically acquired or of unknown origin. The condition may not be obvious or readily identifiable yet may be mildly or severely debilitating and result in fluctuating levels of wellness and sickness, and/or periods of hospitalisation; for example, HIV/AIDS, cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, Crohn’s disease, cystic fibrosis, asthma or diabetes.

‘Other’

A disability, impairment or long-term condition which is not suitably described by one or several disability types in combination. Autism spectrum disorders are reported under this category. 

Privacy Notice

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 vocational education and training (VET) course with us. If you do provide adequate information as requested, Edge Workforce Pty Ltd may not be able to process your application.

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.

Please refer to the additional State or Territory Authority Privacy Notice included in this application process should this be relevant to your application.

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.

Contact information

At any time, you may contact Edge Workforce Pty Ltd to:

·          request access to your personal information

·          correct your personal information

·          make a complaint about how your personal data has been handled

·          ask a question about this Privacy Notice

For information about how Edge Workforce Pty Ltd collects, uses and discloses your personal information generally, including how you can make a complaint about a breach of privacy, please refer to Edge Workforce Pty Ltd privacy policy which can be found within the Student Handbook and on the web at <<www.qualifytraiing.com.au>>.

Under the Data Provision Requirements 2012, Edge Workforce Pty Ltd is required to collect personal information about you and to disclose that personal information to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd (NCVER).

Your personal information (including the personal information contained on this enrolment form), may be used or disclosed by Edge Workforce Pty Ltd for statistical, administrative, regulatory and research purposes. Edge Workforce Pty Ltd may disclose your personal information for these purposes to:

·          Commonwealth and State or Territory government departments and authorised agencies; and

·          NCVER.

Personal information that has been disclosed to NCVER may be used or disclosed by NCVER for the following purposes:

·           populating authenticated VET transcripts;

·           facilitating statistics and research relating to education, including surveys and data linkage;

·           pre-populating RTO student enrolment forms;

·          understanding how the VET market operates, for policy, workforce planning and consumer information; and administering VET, including program administration, regulation, monitoring and evaluation.

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

NCVER will collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the National VET Data Policy and all NCVER policies and protocols (including those published on NCVER's website at www.ncver.edu.au).

Edge Workforce Pty Ltd retains a record of personal information about all individuals with whom we undertake any form of business activity. Edge Workforce Pty Ltd must collect, hold, use and disclose information from our clients and stakeholders for a range of purposes.

As a government registered training organisation, regulated by the Australian Skills Quality Authority, Edge Workforce Pty Ltd is required to collect, hold, use and disclose a wide range of personal and sensitive information on Students in nationally recognised training programs. This information requirement is outlined in the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 and associated legislative instruments.

Edge Workforce Pty Ltd must require and confirm identification however, in services delivery to individuals for nationally recognised course programs. We are authorised by Australian law to deal only with individuals who have appropriately identified themselves. That is, it is a Condition of Registration for all RTOs under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 that we identify individuals and their specific individual needs on commencement of services delivery and collect and disclose Australian Vocational Education and Training Management of Information Statistical Standard (AVETMISS) data on all individuals enrolled in nationally recognised training programs. Other legal requirements, as noted earlier in this policy, also require considerable identification arrangements.

This Privacy Policy contains information about how individuals may access and seek correction of the personal data held by us, and how to complain about a breach of privacy, and how we will deal with such a complaint.

In providing your personal information as requested and signing this notice, you are confirming your receipt of, and understanding of these details, and providing your consent for the collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information as outlined.

 I declare that the information I have provided to the best of my knowledge is true and correct. I consent to the collection, use and disclosure of my personal information in accordance with the Privacy Notice above. In making this application for enrolment, I am aware of the consequences that may arise from providing false, misleading or incomplete information, including the cancellation of my enrolment or the withdrawal of any offer made by Edge Workforce Pty Ltd

I have read, and I consent to the collection, use and disclosure of my personal information (which may include sensitive data) pursuant to the information detailed, and NCVER policies, procedures and protocols published on NCVER's website at www.ncver.edu.au

Marketing Use Content

I give Edge Workforce Pty Ltd permission to use photos in public material and social media (including any images where I may be recognised) as may be useful. I authorise images of my participation in training to be used by Edge Workforce Pty Ltd for future marketing and business purposes. I understand that I retain the right to withdraw my consent at any time.