The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ VET Data Privacy Notice below provides specific information about how the department handles a VET student’s personal information.
On this page:
Registered training organisations (RTOs) should also refer to the minimum Privacy Notice at Schedule 1 of the National VET Data Policy which the RTO is responsible for providing to students, usually as part of the enrolment process.
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations VET Data Privacy Notice
How we collect your personal information
When you enrol as a student in a vocational education and training (VET) course, your registered training organisation (RTO) collects personal information so they can process and manage your enrolment.
Your RTO may be required by law (under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (Cth) (the NVETR Act)) to disclose the personal information collected about you to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd (NCVER). NCVER is the National VET Data Custodian and is responsible for collecting, managing, analysing and communicating research and statistics about the Australian VET sector.
The NCVER is authorised by law (under the NVETR Act) to disclose your personal information to us, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (the department).
How we handle and use your personal information
The department is authorised by law, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act) and the NVETR Act to collect, use and disclose your personal information to fulfil specified functions and activities, including:
- administering VET, such as program administration, regulation, monitoring and evaluation
- facilitating 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 department is also authorised by law (under the NVETR Act) to disclose your personal information to:
- another Commonwealth authority
- a person engaged by the Secretary of the department to carry out an activity on behalf of the department
if that authority or person satisfies any prescribed information safeguard rules for such a disclosure.
The department may be authorised by law to share ‘Public Sector Data’ with third parties, including under the Data Availability and Transparency Act 2022 (Cth) (DAT Act). ‘Public Sector Data’ is defined in the DAT Act to mean ‘data lawfully collected, created or held by or on behalf of a Commonwealth body…’ and therefore includes any data collected by the department as part of performing VET related functions.
For information about the department’s broader approach to handling personal information across all the areas it administers, please see the department’s privacy policy.
To correct your information
If you would like to seek access to or correct your personal information, in the first instance, please contact your RTO.
To make a complaint or ask a question
If you think we may have breached your privacy you may make a complaint at privacy@dewr.gov.au. To ensure that we fully understand the nature of your complaint and the outcome you are seeking, we prefer that you make your complaint in writing.
For further information about our complaint handling processes please see our Privacy Complaint Handling Procedures.
If you wish to ask a question about this VET Data Privacy Notice please email VET-DataPolicy@dewr.gov.au.