Privacy Policy

Queensland has privacy legislation which applies to the Queensland public sector — the Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) (IP Act). The IP Act contains privacy principles which set out how agencies may and must handle personal information. 

TAFE Queensland ABN 72 898 805 093 (referred to as we, us or our) has implemented this Privacy Policy to provide individuals with information about how we hold and use personal information we collect.

By providing your personal information to TAFE Queensland, you consent to its collection, use, storage and disclosure in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

If you wish to make any inquiries regarding this Privacy Policy, you should contact us using the contact details specified in section 4.8. 

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This document sets out our policy on how we will manage your personal information.

This policy applies to all TAFE Queensland employees, volunteers, contractors, associates, students (current, former or prospective students), visitors and other stakeholders.

Personal information has the meaning given in section 12 of the IP Act and generally means any information about an identifiable person or an individual who is reasonably identifiable from the information;

                a) whether the information or opinion is true or not; and

                b) whether the information or opinion is recorded.

The personal information collected and held about you includes but is not limited to:

• your name, address, email address, age, gender, tax file number, citizenship, unique student identifier, occupation, contact information;
• information about your education history and other related information if you are a student registered with us;
• payment details, such as your credit card details;
• details of courses undertaken with us;
• background checks including police checks and working with children checks if you apply for employment or other related positions, or this is required for vocational placement, work integrated learning or work experience (placement);
• any audio or video-recording of you while in education or training programs or on our campuses;
• health and sensitive information as described in section 4.3 below; and
• other information provided voluntarily by you, for example in response to surveys or competitions.

Where practicable, we will give you the option of interacting with us anonymously or using a pseudonym.  For instance, you do not need to provide any personal information in order to lodge feedback or a general complaint via our website, nor will you usually be asked to identify yourself if you contact TAFE Queensland by telephone with a general enquiry about our services.

4.1 How do we collect your personal information?

We collect personal information about you in a number of ways, including:

• directly from you, for example when you:
  • enrol to complete a course at TAFE Queensland;
  • undertake training with TAFE Queensland (including online);
  • provide information to us in person or by phone, email, in an application form, request for VET FEE-HELP or VET Student loan form or competition entry form;
  • submit information through our websites (including without limitation tafeqld.edu.au); and
• from third parties, such as:
  • TAFE Queensland's commercial partners;
  • other government departments and agencies;
  • social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and X when you contact or otherwise engage with TAFE Queensland through these social media sites; and
  • third party service providers (including employers and job agencies), to provide or facilitate your enrolment at TAFE Queensland.

Where we engage with you multiple times over a short period in relation to the same matter, we may not provide you with a separate notice about privacy each time we engage with you.

4.2 How do we use your personal information?

TAFE Queensland may use your personal information for the primary purposes for which it was collected, related secondary purposes, or as otherwise set out in this Privacy Policy. Such purposes may include, without limitation, use of your personal information to:

• process any application for enrolment you might submit to us;
• apply for a unique student identifier (USI) for you;
• deliver or facilitate the provision of training or academic courses and other related products and services and retain evidence of participation / completion;
• process financial assistance or loan requests such as VET FEE-HELP, VET Student loan, HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP, OS-HELP, or SA-HELP including submitting information to the Commonwealth Department of Education and Department of Employment and Workplace Relations;
• verify your identity;
• develop student registers to enable us to communicate with you and any nominated parent/guardian;
• facilitate health, safety and wellbeing at our campuses and other training and study locations (including online);
• process any job application you might submit to us;
• develop, run, administer and promote competitions, programs, activities and other events run by us, including promotions on social media;
• market and promote products, services, merchandise and special offers made available by us or our respective commercial partners;
• administer and manage our websites, computer networks, platforms and other applications (“systems”) and provide you with access to those systems, to enable those systems to function, to identify you as the holder of an account , to associate account activity with your identity and to allow other users to contact you or collaborate with you on documents or other resources;
• administer and manage any account you may hold with us;
• keep adequate records for audit, record keeping and compliance purposes;
• provide reporting, survey responses and other data to Government authorities and agencies; 
• keep you informed of news and information relating to TAFE Queensland, including by distributing newsletters, publications and other communication via various mediums including direct mail, email and SMS / MMS messages;
• if you are an employee or other representative of a customer to which we provide our products and services or a supplier or service provider to us, communicate with you about your or your employer's engagement with us and otherwise as specified in this Privacy Policy; and
• research and develop new programs, activities and other events relating to education and other related products and services.

You can contact us using the details specified in section 4.8 if you do not want to receive marketing information (such as our newsletters, publications and other communications) or use the unsubscribe option within electronic communications. However, you cannot opt out of receiving administrative messages in relation to any course in which you are currently enrolled.

We may collect and use your personal information for other purposes not listed above (a secondary purpose). If we do so, we will obtain your consent at the time we collect or use your personal information for that secondary purpose, unless otherwise permitted under the IP Act (see Queensland Privacy Principle (QPP) 6). If we use or disclose your personal information for a secondary purpose we will ensure your personal information is used in accordance with the requirements of the IP Act.

We do not otherwise use or disclose your personal information without your consent, unless the disclosure is:

• in accordance with this Privacy Policy or any agreement you enter into with us; or
• required or authorised by law; or
• for health and safety reasons, or another authorised reason under the Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) or the Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld).

If you do not want to provide your personal information to us for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, you may not be able to enrol in courses or receive certain products and services and we may not be able to undertake certain activities for you, such as enrolling you in a course or providing you with requested information, products or services.

4.3 Health and sensitive information

In some circumstances we may collect sensitive information, such as health information. If we do so, we will obtain your consent if that information is reasonably necessary, or directly related to, one or more of our functions or activities, unless otherwise permitted under the IP Act (see QPP 3.3 and 3.4).

The sensitive information we may collect and hold about you includes but is not limited to:

• information about your health, immunisation or vaccination status (for example, certain courses may require you to be vaccinated against COVID-19, Influenza and/or other illnesses to attend mandatory placement); or
• other sensitive information about you (for example, information about your racial or ethnic origin or criminal history information required to obtain a Blue Card or other check needed to attend placement).

We may use this information:

• to ensure that any education programs in which you participate are run safely and in accordance with any special health needs you may have;
• to ensure compliance with requirements for background checks, immunisation or vaccination for employment, placement or access to facilities;
• for insurance and claim management purposes; and
• otherwise as required or authorised by law.

In addition, we may use de-identified health information and other de-identified sensitive information to:

• carry out research;
• prepare submissions to government or a government body; or
• plan events and activities.

De-identified information is information which has been aggregated or otherwise anonymised so that it cannot be used to identify you or any other individual.

4.4 When do we disclose your personal information?

We may disclose your personal information to:

• if you are a school based apprentice or VET in Schools student - your school, the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority and the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre;
• if you are enrolled in training or study paid for by your employer or another third party (such as a job agency) - to your employer or that third party;
• if you are enrolled with TAFE Queensland and undertaking training or study with another organisation (including other training providers, community organisations or schools) - the organisation with which you are undertaking training or study;
• if you are enrolled with TAFE Queensland in a program eligible for articulation through a higher education delivery partner and/or intend to continue study via a pre-arranged articulation pathway (for example you are studying a dual qualification with TAFE Queensland and a higher education delivery provider) - the higher education delivery provider;
• if you are under the age of 18 - your parent/guardian (unless you have formally advised TAFE Queensland not to provide this information);
• if you are an international student - the parties outlined in the terms and conditions agreed upon accepting a place with TAFE Queensland;
• Government Authorities and Agencies including but not limited to the Queensland Department of Trade, Employment and Training, Services Australia, Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs, Australian Tax Office, Australian Skills Quality Authority, Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Authority, and, for VET FEE-HELP and VET Student Loans purposes, the Commonwealth Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Department of Education and the Tuition Assurance Scheme;
• research organisations and data collection agencies including the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), Tertiary Collection of Student Information (TCSI) and the Social Research Centre (SRC);
• accreditation bodies such as the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council and Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency;
• third parties that we have engaged to carry out functions and activities on our behalf (such as other education providers, placement providers, survey providers, our website hosts, trade suppliers, independent contractors and other third party service providers) or that we otherwise work with to provide our education programs;
• other third parties to whom you have expressly given consent;
• our professional advisers, including our accountants, auditors and lawyers;
• our insurers; and
• other persons as required or authorised by law.

    4.4.1 Overseas disclosure

Some of your personal information may be disclosed by us or by our third party service providers to service providers located or undertaking activities in overseas locations.  In these circumstances, your personal information may also be processed, used, collected and/or stored in these overseas locations.  This may happen if we outsource certain activities to third party service providers who undertake aspects of their activities overseas or if transactions, information, services or products have an overseas connection. This occurs only to the extent it is necessary to perform our functions or discharge our duties.  

The overseas locations where these activities can be undertaken include Singapore, India, the USA, UK and Germany.  From time to time, we may disclose your personal information to and/or access your personal information from recipients in overseas locations in addition to those referenced in our Privacy Policy.  This will only occur where the purpose of undertaking these activities is consistent with the purpose for which the personal information was obtained.   

Depending on the overseas location, there may be limited circumstances where an overseas recipient is required under legal requirement, to disclose your personal information for the purpose of complying with foreign law or regulatory requirements. 

We comply with the requirements of the IP Act in dealing with your personal information in all aspects of the above circumstances.  

In providing your personal information to TAFE Queensland, you consent to the disclosure, collection, use, storage and processing of your personal information to overseas recipients as described above.    

4.5 Our web sites

When you visit our websites, our systems may record certain information about your use of those websites (such as which web pages you visit and the time and date of your visit). We use this information to help analyse and improve the performance of our web sites.

In addition, we may use "cookies" on our websites. Cookies are small text files that help a website to remember your preferences and improve your experience of using that website. Using cookies is standard practice for most large websites. In some cases, the cookies that we use may collect some personal information about you. We will treat this information in the same way as other personal information we collect about you. If you prefer, you may be able to disable cookies on your internet browser.

We may engage third parties, to help analyse how our websites are used. This analysis is performed using data collected from the websites, including by using cookies which are stored on your computer. The information generated is used to create reports about the use of our websites, and these third parties may store this information. However, this information is not intended to and will generally not include any personal information. 

Web beacons are images that originate from a third party site to track visitor activities. We use web beacons to track the visiting patterns and browsing habits of individuals accessing our website. This information is not intended to and will generally not include any personal information.

We may also collect Internet Protocol (IP) addresses relating to you when you access and use the web sites. IP addresses are assigned to computers on the internet to uniquely identify them within the global network of computers which makes up the internet. We may collect and manage IP addresses for internet session management and security purposes.

Some of the content on our websites may include links to third party websites or applications made available by third parties, such as social media buttons or links that allow you to share content or links to our website through the relevant third party platforms. These third party links or applications themselves may facilitate collection of information by those third parties through your interaction with the applications and sometimes even if you do not interact directly with them. We are not responsible for the technical operation of these links or applications or the collection and use practices of the relevant third parties. Please visit the relevant third party websites to understand their privacy practices and options they may make available to you in relation to their collection of your personal information.

4.6 Accuracy of your personal information

TAFE Queensland takes reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. TAFE Queensland complies with relevant Queensland government Information Standards and security protocols to protect personal information and ensure it can be accessed by authorised staff members only. 

We take all reasonable precautions to ensure that the personal information we collect, use, hold and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However, we rely on the accuracy of personal information as provided to us both directly and indirectly.

If you find that the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact us immediately (our contact details are set out in section 4.8 below) and we will take reasonable steps to ensure that it is corrected.

Current TAFE Queensland students have access to view their personal details though the TAFE Queensland Student Self Service website.

4.7 How can you access the personal information we hold about you?

Please refer to the Right to Information section of our website.

4.8 How to contact us

If you:

• have any questions in relation to this Privacy Policy or our personal information handling processes;
• wish to make a complaint in relation to a breach of your privacy under the IP Act, including the QPPs; 
• would like to correct your Personal Information held by us,

you can write to TAFE Queensland's Privacy Officer:

• at PO Box 1910, Carindale, Queensland 4152; or
• email privacy@tafeqld.edu.au
• lodge a complaint on our website

If you would like to opt out of direct marketing, you can write to TAFE Queensland’s Marketing team at:

• at PO Box 1910, Carindale, Queensland 4152; or
• email TAFE.Communication@tafeqld.edu.au.

We take all privacy complaints seriously and will investigate any such complaint in a confidential manner. You will be informed of the outcome of the investigation within a reasonable period of time.

4.9 Changes to this Privacy Policy

From time to time, we may need to change this Privacy Policy to reflect our changing business practices. If that occurs we will post an updated version of this Privacy Policy on the TAFE Queensland website (tafeqld.edu.au).

If you have any feedback about this Privacy Policy please follow the instructions on the Complaints and Feedback page of this website.