Privacy Policy

Privacy and Confidentiality Policy

At Fire and Safety Australia Pty Ltd (FSA) we believe an individual’s right to keep their personal information private is very important. A privacy culture has been developed within the Company by promoting sound privacy principles, implementing information security safeguards and staff training with regards to the handling of personal and Company information.

This Privacy Policy outlines the ways FSA aims to protect personal information and what sort of personal information we may hold about an individual, for what purposes, how it is collected, held, used and disclosed. Personal information is any information that can be used to identify an individual or that can be linked to an individual.

We will only collect personal information that is necessary and relevant to our business relationship with our clients.

The collection of sensitive personal information is restricted by the provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (‘APPs’) and the National VET Data Policy 2020.

This means we will not collect any sensitive information, such as personal information relating to religious views, ethnicity, political opinion, police clearance, health personal information or sexual preference, unless this is necessary to provide a specific product or service and the client has consented to that collection.

When we collect personal information, we will inform of the purposes for which it is collected. Primarily, this will be to provide the product or service the client has requested and the associated administration of that product or service. Once the client chooses to provide us with their personal information, they can be assured it will be used only to support the client’s relationship with FSA. We take seriously the trust placed in us. FSA will not sell, rent or lease personal information to others.

There may be circumstances in which we need to disclose personal information to another person or organisation. However, we will only disclose personal information where we are allowed to or obliged to do so by law, or where we have the client’s expressed or implied consent.

FSA (ACN 098 323 712) and its related bodies corporate are committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. We will only collect and deal with your information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs’) and the National VET Data Policy 2020.

Course Participants attending FSA for training are referred to Fire and Safety Australia’s Course Participant Handbook for further information on FSA’s policies.

For Medical privacy and confidentiality, please refer to the medical in confidence section of this document.

Types of personal information we collect

We do not collect personal information unless the information is necessary for one or more of our functions, activities or reporting requirements (Data Provision Requirements 2012 under the National Vocational Education & Training Regulator Act 2011 (NVETR Act), Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTO’s) 2015 & Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) Essential Conditions and Standards for Continuing Registration ), and only by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive way.

We will collect personal information necessary to market and deliver our services and products, which may include the following:

• Personal contact information – for example, your name and contact details such as your emailing and home addresses
• Demographic information – any information that describes your demographic characteristics or your personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles such as your date of birth, gender and geographic location;
• Account login information – including any username or passwords allocated by us or used by you to access our services and products;
• Payment information – if you are a customer that is responsible for payments to us regarding our services and products, we may hold payment related information (including direct debit or credit card details);
• Website usage information – for example we may hold information regarding your access to our website applications. This may include how you navigate whilst online our websites (i.e. date and time of your visit and interactions made with our website);
• Consumer-generated information – for example, information that you enter and submit to us or third parties during your use of our services and products, either through our online website, hardcopy forms or through social media sites such as Facebook;
• Social network platforms –information that you share as part of your profile on a social media website;
• Technical computer information – any information about a computer system or other technological devices that you may be using to access one of our websites or applications; and
• Government issued identifiers, such as Tax File Numbers and Australian Business Numbers (which are only used in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)).

How we collect personal information

Generally we will collect this information directly from you but in some cases it will be collected through other forms, including the following:

• Websites – this may include any Fire and Safety Australia Pty Ltd websites or consumer-directed websites that we run on third party social network sites such as Facebook;
• Social networking sites – personal information may be collected when you interact with social networking features such as “Facebook Connect” or “Facebook Like” when these features are integrated in our sites or applications;
• Hardcopy forms – any training course enrolment forms. Booking forms, promotional, marketing or other general forms that you may fill in from time to time;
• Consumer Services call centre – personal information may be collected via our call centre, for example, where you have provided us with feedback or called regarding a query; and
• Data from third parties – although we generally only collect personal information from you directly, we may be provided with information from third parties. For example, third parties who we engage to run promotional activities, third parties who we may acquire and information we may require when we consider business customer credit applications

Why we collect personal information

As a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), we collect personal information so we can process and manage enrolments in Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses with us. If the required personal information is not provided FSA can be prevented from issuing a nationally recognised VET Qualification or Statement of Attainment.

As a provider of medical assistance through FSA Medical and Emergency Services, we collect information that pertains to the treatment and assistance being provided by FSA practitioners. Where relevant this information may be shared with other medical providers where there is a transfer of medical treatment. At all times, medical confidentially and privacy in healthcare guidelines and privacy laws will be adhered to.

For further information refer to Medical in Confidence section of this document.

Use and disclosure of personal information

Fire and Safety Australia Pty Ltd and Ashkait Pty Ltd may collect and use your personal information for some or all of the following purposes (not all of which will be relevant for every individual):

• Marketing our services and products to you through emails, newsletters, promotions etc. where you have opted-in to receive marketing updates or you have agreed to be included in our promotional activities. We may use your personal information in this regard in the following ways:
• General marketing communications – to send you communications by post, text message or email; and
• Targeted advertising – this may include where we match information you have provided with similar information on third party sites (data-matching).
• Managing your account(s) with us –to maintain your account(s) with us, including maintaining any loyalty rewards that you may be entitled to;
• Monitoring, developing and improving our services and products – to improve our services and products, tailor them to your needs, come up with new services and products ideas and inform you of any changes to our services and products;
• Order fulfilment – this may include using your details to keep you informed of the general status of any orders you have placed with us;
• Consumer/customer service –to provide you with customer service, including responses to your inquiries, complaints and general feedback about our services and products;
• Website improvement and personalisation – to improve and personalise your experience on our websites and applications;
• Website community features – to give you access to website community features including features that may allow you to upload and share pictures, videos or other messages or content; and
• Other general purposes – for other general business purposes such as to maintain the day-to-day operation and security of our websites and applications and to conduct internal marketing and demographic studies and to contact you for consumer research.

We are required by law (under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (Cth) (NVETR Act)) to disclose the personal information collected 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 personal information to the relevant state or territory authority.

We may disclose personal information to third party suppliers that we use in the course of providing our services and products, our related bodies corporate and our advisors. We may also disclose personal information to government and regulatory authorities and other organisations, as required or authorised by law. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that any third party to whom we disclose personal information to are bound by confidentiality and privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information. Please note that third parties may also collect personal information directly from you.

We may disclose your personal information to our related bodies corporate if it is necessary for one of the purposes for which the information has been disclosed to us. Apart from this, your personal information is never shared, sold, rented or otherwise disclosed except if required by law or with your consent. At any time you may opt-out of receiving any communications from us (other than as required for the operation of our business e.g. regarding payment of accounts). See below for our contact details.

The NCVER will collect, hold, use and disclose personal information in accordance with the law, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the NVETR Act. Personal information may be used and disclosed by NCVER for purposes that include populating authenticated VET transcripts; administration of VET; facilitation of statistic 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 RTO’s) that deal with matters relating to VET and VET regulators for the purpose 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 personal information to any overseas recipients.

DESE is authorised by law, including the Privacy Act and the NVETR Act, to collect, use and disclose personal information to fulfil specified functions and activities. For further information please refer to the DESE VET Privacy Notice at https://www.dese.gov.au/national-vet-data/vet-privacy-notice

For the use and disclosure of personal information within a medical environment, refer to the Medical and Emergency Services section of this document.

Security

We will take reasonable steps to ensure any personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. You should inform us promptly if there are any changes to any of your personal or company information. We will take reasonable steps to:

• protect the personal information we hold from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure; and
• destroy or permanently de-identify personal information if it is no longer needed for any purpose for which the information may be used or disclosed under this policy (unless we are required by law to keep it).

Access, accuracy and correction

You have a right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you at any time. If your personal information changes, if you have a concern about how we are handling your personal information or if you no longer require our services, we will endeavour to provide a way to correct, update or remove the personal data you have provided to us. You may also request us to amend your personal information where you believe it is out-dated.

Anonymity

Where it is practical and legal to do so, we will generally provide you with the ability to interact with us anonymously.

Sensitive information

We will not collect, use or disclose sensitive information (such as information about racial or ethnic origins or political or religious beliefs) except with your specific consent or in the circumstances permitted in the Privacy Act.

Clickstream Data

Each time you visit our web site(s) our server collects some anonymous information, known as clickstream data, including the type of browser and system you are using; the address of the site you have come from and move to after your visit; the date and time of your visit; and your server’s IP address. Fire and Safety Australia Pty Ltd may collect this information for statistical purposes to find out how our web site(s) are used and navigated, including the number of hits, the frequency and duration of visits, most popular session times. We may use this information to evaluate and improve our web site performance.

Cookies

A Cookie is a piece of information that our web server may send to your machine when you visit our web site(s). The Cookie is stored on your machine, but does not identify you or give us any information about your computer. A Cookie helps us to recognise you when you re-visit our web site(s) and to coordinate your access to different pages on our web site(s). With most Internet Browsers, you can erase Cookies from your computer hard drive, block all Cookies, or receive a warning before a Cookie is stored. If you want to do this, refer to your Browser instructions or help screen to learn more.

Links to other sites

Websites operated by us may contain links to other sites operated by third parties. We make no representations or warranties as to the privacy practices of any third-party site and are not responsible for the privacy policies of other sites. We advise that you check the privacy policies on those sites.

MEDICAL AND EMERGENCY SERVICES

Medical in confidence

This Medical in Confidence section applies to FSA Medical and Emergency Response Services teams and other employees at First Aid Posts, but can be used for other staff and visitors who may be required to work with the data such as administration staff and consultants.

FSA may, as part of services provided, collect health and medical information. This may include medical assessments as part of a pre-employment, injury management information following injury or illness acquired within the employees work roles; or medical and health information from those seeking medical assistance in the event of a first aid incident or emergency event, whereby FSA employees have provided first aid or medical treatment.

There may be circumstances in which we need to disclose personal information to another person or organisation in order to support the required medical treatment or facilitate employment contract obligations. However, we will only disclose personal information where we are allowed to or obliged to do so by law, or where we have the client’s expressed or implied consent.

Regardless of where and how the employee, contractor or visitor works within the company, or when dealing with medical information, the overarching intent and aim of this policy continues to apply.

TRAINING SERVICES

Access to learner records

Refer to Fire and Safety Australia’s Course Participant Handbook for further information on FSA’s policies.

Learners can request access or obtain copies of the records that FSA holds about them at any time. This includes personal information and records of participation and progress.

If you want to access or obtain a copy of records, you must make a request in writing to the Quality Manager. There is no charge to access your records.

Within 10 days of receiving a request, you will be advised that they you may either access the records in person or that the requested records will be sent to your home address.

Where access is provided to review the contents of a file, photo ID will be required to ensure that the person viewing the file is the student. Access will occur in the presence of an FSA staff member. Where copies of records are to be provided via post, records will only be sent to the home address the RTO holds on file for the student. FSA will keep student records for 30 years.

A student may request a Record of Results at any time via email or phone. Access to records may be provided by:

• making copies of documents held in a file;
• giving access to the student to review their file;
• providing a copy of an up-to-date Statement of Attainment; or
• other means necessary to grant access to current and up-to-date records.

Amendment to records

If a learner considers the information that FSA holds about them to be incorrect, incomplete, out of date or misleading, they can request that the information be amended.

Where a record is found to be inaccurate, a correction will be made. Where a student requests that a record be amended because it is inaccurate but the record is found to be accurate, the details of the request for amendment will be noted on the record.

Future changes to this policy

We may change this policy from time to time and will notify by posting an updated version of this policy on this website.

 

APPENDIX A: PRIVACY NOTICE FOR LEARNERS

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 a vocational education and training (VET) course with us. If the required personal information is not provided FSA can be prevented from issuing you a nationally recognised VET Qualification or Statement of Attainment.

 

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.

Survey

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 Fire and Safety Australia to:

• request access to your personal information
• correct your personal information
• make a complaint about how your personal information has been handled
• ask a question about this Privacy Notice

Please contact us as follows:

• Email: compliance@fireandsafetyaustralia.com.au
• Telephone: 1300 88 55 30
• Mail: Compliance Manager, FSA, 6-7 Hartnett Close, Mulgrave, Victoria 3170, Australia

 

Future changes to this policy

We may change this policy from time to time and will notify you by posting an updated version of this policy on this website. This document represents our policy as at December 2021.

Terms and Conditions for course participants

Students are to behave in a safe, respectful and appropriate manner and follow the directions of their Trainer. While attending training students are expected to wear work attire relevant to the course they are participating in, this allows for safe completion of any required activity.

Fire and Safety Australia (FSA) offers fair and reasonable refunds as per the conditions outlined below. No refund applies if you withdraw after commencement unless special circumstances apply, such as illness. Final decisions regarding refunds, fees, cancellations and transfers are at the discretion of the training organisation.

Public Course Cancellation Policy

When cancelling an enrolment, the following charges will apply:

• 2 day ‘cooling off period’
• If 7 or more days’ notice is given prior to course start – no charge
• If 6 or less days’ notice is given prior to course start – 50% of course fee will be charge
• If 3 days or less (72 hours) notice is given prior to course start time – 100% of course fee will be charged

When transferring an enrolment from one course date to another, the following charges will apply:

• Transferred with 7 or more days’ notice prior to course start – no charge
• Transferred with 6 or less days’ notice given prior to course start – 50% of course fee will be charged
• Transferred with 3 or less days (72 hours) notice from course start time – 100% of course fee will be charged
• Names changes with 5 days or less notice given prior to course start will incur a $50.00 + GST fee per name change

Corporate Courses – Cancellation Policy

Once a training date has been confirmed by FSA, any changes made by the client to this booking, including cancellation or postponement will result in the following fees after the 2 day “cooling off period”:

• Cancelled / transferred with 7 or more days’ notice prior to course start – no charge
• Cancelled / transferred with 6 or less days’ notice prior to course start – 50% of course fee will be charged
• Cancelled / transferred with 3 or less days (72 hours) notice from course start time – 100% of course fee will be charged
• Name changes with 5 days or less notice prior to the course start will incur a $50.00 + GST fee per name change

Distance Learning

All cancellation requests must be received in writing.

• 2 day “cooling off period” upon receipt of payment
• Cancelled / withdrawn between 3-13 business days, course fee refunded minus an administration fee of $250.00
• Cancelled / withdrawn after 14 days from commencement – 100% of course fee forfeited

In the event that FSA has not been provided with the required pre-requisite / pre-entry evidence for all students, the training can continue as non-accredited / not nationally recognised training, or can be re-scheduled to a later date to allow more time to gather the required evidence which will attract an additional cost of 100% of course fees.

Mental Health First Aid and AIIMS Courses

In the event of cancellation / withdrawal from the above courses, if notice is given 4 or more days prior to course start date, clients / students will be charged 50% of the course fee. The amount retained by FSA (50%) is required to cover the cost of resources purchased for the course and administration. Cancelled / transferred with 3 days (72 hours) or less notice from course start time – 100% of course fee will be charged.

FSA has a zero tolerance policy on students being under the influence of drugs or alcohol during a training course. In the event any student is turned away from training as a result of being adversely affected by drugs or alcohol in the Trainer’s opinion, there shall be no refund.

FSA provides scheduled dates for courses, these courses are subject to sufficient numbers of students wishing to undertake the training. Should a course be under-subscribed the course may be cancelled or deferred until it’s viable to conduct the training. In this instance FSA will contact any student enrolled to inform them and re-schedule as appropriate.

Further information on policies and procedures is available in the Course Participant Handbook.

Declaration:

I declare that the information and documentation provided is true and correct. I have read and understood the cancellation and refund policies and agree with all the terms and conditions specified.

I give my consent for a copy of my award to be released to my employer if they have paid the course fees.

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