Privacy Notice

PRIVACY NOTICE

As a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), we are committed to ensuring compliance with privacy laws and safeguarding the personal information of our students and individuals we interact with. This Privacy Notice outlines how we collect, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with relevant legal and regulatory requirements.

How We Collect Personal Information

We collect personal information through various methods, including:

• Directly from You: For example, when you:
  • Enrol in a course at MAT
  • Apply for government-subsidised courses or funding
  • Participate in training with MAT
  • Provide information in person, via phone, email, or through our chatline
  • Submit details through our website
• From Third Parties: Such as:
  • Third-party service providers, including employers, Australian Apprenticeship Support Networks or job agencies, that assist with your enrolment at MAT
  • Government departments or agencies, including:
    • The USI Registry System, to confirm your identity and educational history
    • The Department of Home Affairs, to verify visa status, study entitlements, or residency requirements
  • Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, when you contact us
• Social Media Platforms:
  MAT may also collect personal information through its social media channels, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

How We Use Your Personal Information

MAT uses your personal information for the primary purposes for which it was collected, including:

1. Verification
   • Confirming your identity to facilitate enrolment and access to services.
2. Enrolment and Administration
   • Managing your enrolment including updating details, processing payments, and tracking your course progress.
3. Training and Service Delivery
   • Facilitating your training programs, providing access to online systems and maintaining records of your participation and completion.
4. Communication
   • Maintaining accurate student registers to communicate with you and, if applicable, your nominated parent or guardian.
5. Health and Safety
   • Ensuring your health, safety, and wellbeing during your enrolment.
6. Marketing and Promotions
   • Informing you about courses, updates and MAT news. With your consent, sending marketing communications about MAT products and services.
   • Promoting competitions, programs, activities, and events, including through social media.
7. System Management
   • Administering and maintaining our websites, platforms, networks, and applications to ensure proper functionality and account identification.
8. Compliance and Reporting
   • Maintaining records for audits, compliance, and reporting purposes, including AVETMISS data reporting required by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) and State and Territory Training Authorities.
9. Legal Obligations
   • Complying with legal requirements and responding to lawful requests from authorities.
10. Business Communications
    • Managing communications with students, suppliers, or service providers regarding enrolments, services, or other engagements with MAT.
11. Research and Development
    • Conducting research and developing new educational programs and services to improve MAT offerings.
12. Other Purposes
    • We may use your personal information for other purposes not listed above. If we do so, we will inform you at the time of use, and we will ensure your personal information is used in accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Sharing and Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose your personal information to the following parties under specific circumstances:

1. Employers or Third Parties
   If your training is funded by your employer or a third party (e.g., a job agency), we may share information about your progress, attendance, and completion status.
2. Parents/Guardians (for Students Under 18)
   For students under 18, we may share information about attendance, progress, and well-being with their parents or guardians.
3. School-Based Apprenticeships and VET in Schools Students
   Information may be shared with your school and relevant state authorities for school-based apprenticeships or VET in Schools programs.
4. Government Authorities and Agencies
   We may share your information with government entities such as:
   • Queensland Department of Employment, Small Business & Training
   • Centrelink
   • Commonwealth and state agencies administering financial assistance programs
5. Regulatory and Educational Authorities
   Information may be disclosed to regulatory bodies such as:
   • Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA)
   • Tuition Protection Service (TPS)
6. Immigration and Visa Agencies
   We may share information with agencies responsible for immigration and student visa arrangements.
7. National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER)
   As required by the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (Cth) (NVETR Act), we are obligated to disclose personal information to the National VET Data Collection managed by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd (NCVER), which is responsible for research, statistics, and reporting on 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.
8. To view how the NCVER handles your personal information, click here.
9. USI (Unique Student Identifier)
   We are required to collect and share your USI (Unique Student Identifier) with relevant authorities. When applying for a USI on your behalf, we will do so in accordance with the USI Privacy Notice. Click here to view the USI Privacy Notice.
10. Consent-Based Disclosure
    We may share your information with third parties upon your explicit consent.
11. Credit and Debt Recovery
    If payment for services is not made, we may disclose your information to credit reporting agencies, courts, or other entities involved in debt recovery.
12. Legal Obligations and Proceedings
    We may disclose your personal information to authorities, courts, or law enforcement agencies when required by law or as part of legal proceedings.
13. Professional Advisers
    Information may be shared with our professional advisers, such as accountants, auditors, or lawyers.
14. Insurers
    We may disclose information to insurers for claims, risk assessments, or other insurance-related matters.
15. Other Legal Disclosures
    We do not otherwise disclose your personal information without your permission, unless required or authorised by law, for health and safety reasons, or for another authorised reason under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) or the Right to Information Act.

Under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Data Provision Requirement) Instrument 2020 Data Provision Requirements 2012, Medical Administration Training is required to collect personal information about you and to disclose that personal information to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd (NCVER). We are also required to supply you with their privacy notice. See the notice below. 

NCVER privacy policy

Purpose

This policy explains how National Centre for Vocational Education Research Limited (NCVER) staff and contractors manage your personal information.

NCVER is committed to managing personal information in an open and transparent way. Our Privacy Policy explains how the NCVER complies with:

• the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs)
• Subdivision B of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (NVETR Act)
• Divisions 4 and 5 of the Student Identifiers Act 2014 (SI Act) and the Student Identifiers Regulations
• the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Data Provision Requirements) Instrument 2020
• the National VET Data Policy.

We only collect the information we need to do our work. We regularly review our processes to make sure the information we collect is protected in the best possible ways.

Other privacy information

We also have privacy notices that explain how we will handle personal information for specific projects:

• National Student Outcomes Survey
• Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY)
• Survey of Employer Use and Views of the VET System
• VET Student Experience Survey.

Personal information we collect and hold

Types of personal information we collect and hold

We collect personal information to produce statistics, undertake research, and to help manage and operate our business.

If you are a VET student, we may collect and hold the following types of personal information about you:

• name, address and contact details (e.g. telephone number and email address)
• personal identifiers (e.g. government related identifiers)
• demographics (e.g. age, gender)
• country of birth, main language spoken at home, Indigenous status, disability status (including types of disability)
• personal characteristics and personal opinions (e.g. date of birth, country of birth, language spoken at home, Indigenous status, disability status (including types of disability), employment information, and income
• education information (e.g. training enrolment and result details)

If you otherwise engage with us (for example, as a researcher, employee in the VET sector and so on) we may collect and hold the following types of personal information about you:

• name, organisation, position, address and contact details (e.g. telephone number and email address)
• dietary requirement for events and biographical information for keynote speakers
• information received as part of a recruitment process if you apply for a position with us (e.g. resumes and referee reports)
• audio and video recordings of you (as part of testing or your involvement in research, and with your consent).

How we collect and hold personal information

We may collect personal information about you directly from you (either when we approach you or when you contact us) as well as indirectly from third parties, such as from other government agencies and data custodians that make their data available to us.

We may collect your personal information directly from you:

• using surveys
• when you contact us
• when you sign up to our subscription services
• if you work for a registered training organisation and ask for our help with data submissions
• if you request data or other information from us
• if you take part in our research projects
• when you apply for a position with us.

If you are a student, we may also collect your personal information from other organisations, such as:

• from your training provider
• from administrative data sources (e.g. from data collected by state/territory training authorities and Boards of Studies).

We sometimes use third-party providers to help us collect statistics and undertake research on our behalf. These third-party providers are legally bound to meet privacy standards and our expectations. They will also have their own privacy policies, processes and security protections that we review to ensure their approach to privacy reflects our own.

We separate identifiable information, such as names and addresses, from other information as soon as possible.  We store this information securely and separately so that our analysts cannot view your name or address with your other information (e.g. age, gender, training activity, level of education or employment status).

Keeping your personal information safe

We take the security of your personal information seriously and take active steps to protect personal information and data from cybercrime, interference, misuse, modification, and unauthorised access or disclosure.

Our information security management system aligns with the requirements of ISO 27001 (Information Security Management System) and ICT systems security recommendations published by the Australian Signals Directorate.

Generally, NCVER retains personal information for as long as it is required for its business activities, and for as long as we are legally required to retain the information. When personal information is no longer necessary for the business activity it was collected for, and it is legal to do so, NCVER destroys or takes reasonable steps to de-identify the information.

We assess the impact of our activities on your individual privacy by conducting Privacy Impact Assessments, which help us design new processes, manage change, and keep your information safe.

How we use your personal information

We only use your personal information for the purposes for which it was given to us.

If you are a VET student, we may use your personal information:

• To produce statistics and research relating to education.  This may involve combining your information with other sources of data to help policy makers and researchers gain a better understanding VET sector dynamics and performance, support critical policy and other decision making, and shed light on evolving VET sector priorities. This is known as data integration
• To understand how the VET market operates
• To invite you to participate in a survey.

If you otherwise engage with us (for example, as a researcher, employee in the VET sector and so on) we may use your personal information:

• To provide you with information or services you have requested from us
• In our recruitment processes
• For consulting with you on our products and services.

Disclosure of your personal information

If we disclose personal information, we do so only as permitted by the NVETR Act, the Privacy Act, and other relevant legal requirements, such as the National VET Data Policy.

We may disclose your personal information where:

• You have agreed
• You would reasonably expect, or have been told, that we may disclose information in a particular circumstance or to a particular person or organisation
• It is required or authorised by law.

The NVETR Act authorises us to disclose information to any of the following bodies for the purposes of that body:

• the Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
• another Commonwealth authority
• a State or Territory authority (other than a registered training organisation) that deals with, or has responsibility for, matters relating to vocational education and training
• a VET Regulator.

Further to this, the National VET Data Policy authorises us to share personal information for:

(a) populating authenticated VET transcripts

(b) administering VET, including program administration, regulation, monitoring and evaluation

(c) facilitating statistics and research relating to education, including surveys and data linkage

(d) understanding how the VET market operates, for policy, workforce planning and consumer information.

The NCVER does not intend to disclose your personal information to any overseas recipients.

Our websites

When you browse our websites (ncver.edu.au, lsay.edu.au, vocedplus.edu.au, https://avs.ncver.edu.au), we collect the following information about your visit:

• your server or IP address (the name or number that uniquely identifies the computer you are using to connect to the internet)
• date and time of your visit
• web pages you accessed.

No personal information is recorded.

We use this information to manage and improve our websites, products and services.

Where there are links on our websites to third party websites, we cannot guarantee the privacy of those sites and are not responsible for the privacy practices of the linked websites.

Web analytic and survey services

Our websites use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Mailchimp, and Hotjar, web analytic services provided by Google Inc, Facebook and Mailchimp (United States) and Hotjar Ltd (Malta). Information about your use of our websites (including your IP address) is transmitted and stored on servers (Google, Facebook and Mailchimp – United States and Hotjar – Malta).  Google, Facebook, Mailchimp and Hotjar use this information to compile reports on website activity for us and to provide other services relating to website activity and internet usage. These services have their own privacy policies, which you can access on their websites.

We occasionally use SurveyMonkey for research or for gathering views from users of our products and services. When you enter information for a survey conducted by NCVER using SurveyMonkey, your responses are stored on servers (United States). This service has its own privacy policy, which you can access from their website.

Social networking services

We use social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube to communicate with the public about our work. When you communicate with us using these services, we may collect your personal information to communicate with you and the public.

The social networking service will also handle your personal information for its own purposes. These services have their own privacy policies. You can access the privacy policies for these services on their websites.

Anonymity and Pseudonymity

Where possible, we allow individuals to interact with us anonymously or pseudonymously. Examples of situations where it is not possible to offer anonymity include servicing data requests, resolving client support service requests, registrations for events, document delivery requests and HR management.

Access to and correction of personal information

You can ask to access, and correct, personal information we hold about you at any time. Just contact us using the details below. If you would like to correct your information, in the first instance, please contact your registered training organisation (RTO).

Contact us

For all privacy related enquiries, or to request a pdf copy of this policy, please contact our Privacy Officer:

• By telephoning (08) 8230 8414, on Monday to Friday, between the hours of 9.00am and 5.00pm (Adelaide time)
• By completing our online Feedback form
• By emailing us at privacy@ncver.edu.au
• By writing to us at Privacy Officer, NCVER, PO Box 8288, Station Arcade, SA, 5000.

To make a privacy complaint, please refer to our Complaints Policy at: https://www.ncver.edu.au/complaints-policy