Privacy Policy

Ask U Training ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect when you visit askutraining.com, how we use it, and your rights under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

Ask U Training is the data controller responsible for your personal data. We are a nationally recognised training provider delivering accredited qualifications and CPD courses across Health & Social Care, Childcare, First Aid and more.

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, please contact us at jennetteaskew1@outlook.com or gill.west@icloud.com.

2. What Information We Collect

We may collect the following types of information:

• Contact information - your name, email address and phone number when you submit an enquiry or contact form.
• Course enquiry details - information about the courses or training you are interested in.
• Testimonials - if you voluntarily submit a testimonial via our website.
• Usage data - pages visited, time spent on the site, browser type, device type and approximate location (country/region), collected automatically via cookies and analytics tools.
• Technical data - your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, and referring URLs.

We do not collect sensitive personal data (such as health information) via this website without your explicit consent.

3. Cookies and Tracking

Our website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to improve your experience and understand how visitors use our site. Cookies are small text files stored on your device.

We use the following types of cookies:

• Essential cookies - necessary for the website to function correctly. These cannot be disabled.
• Analytics cookies - we may use tools such as Google Analytics to collect anonymous data about how visitors interact with our site. This helps us improve content and usability. No personally identifiable information is sent to these services.
• Preference cookies - used to remember settings or preferences you have selected on our site.

You can control and manage cookies through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of this website. For more information about cookies visit allaboutcookies.org.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Respond to your enquiries and provide information about our courses and services.
• Process course bookings and enrolments.
• Send you relevant information about training opportunities, updates and news (only where you have consented or there is a legitimate interest).
• Improve our website content and user experience using anonymised analytics data.
• Comply with our legal obligations.
• Maintain records as required by our awarding bodies and regulators.

5. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal data on the following legal bases under UK GDPR:

• Consent - where you have given us clear consent (e.g. submitting a contact form or signing up for updates).
• Legitimate interests - where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as responding to enquiries and improving our services, provided these interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Legal obligation - where we are required to process data to comply with a legal obligation.
• Contractual necessity - where processing is necessary to fulfil a contract with you, such as delivering a course you have enrolled on.

6. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal data. We may share your information with:

• Awarding bodies - such as Highfield Qualifications, to register you for and administer your qualifications.
• The Learning Records Service (LRS) - operated by the ESFA, to issue your Unique Learner Number (ULN) and maintain your Personal Learning Record (PLR).
• Service providers - third-party companies who assist us in operating our website or conducting our business (e.g. email hosting, website analytics), who are contractually bound to keep your information confidential.
• Regulatory bodies - where we are legally required to do so.

All third parties are required to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

7. Third-Party Services

Our website may include links to third-party websites or services. This privacy policy applies only to our website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites and encourage you to read their privacy policies.

We may use the following third-party services on this website:

• Google Analytics - for anonymous website usage statistics. Google Privacy Policy.
• Google Fonts - for website typography. Fonts are loaded from Google's servers.
• OpenStreetMap / CartoDB - for the interactive map displayed in our footer.

8. How Long We Keep Your Data

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, accounting or reporting requirements:

• Contact form enquiries - up to 2 years from the date of enquiry.
• Learner records - up to 7 years after the completion of training, as required by our awarding bodies.
• Financial records - 6 years as required by HMRC.
• Website analytics data - as per the retention settings of the analytics provider (typically 26 months).

9. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access - you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification - you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure - you can ask us to delete your personal data where there is no compelling reason for us to keep it.
• Right to restrict processing - you can ask us to limit how we use your data.
• Right to data portability - you can request that we transfer your data to another organisation or directly to you.
• Right to object - you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes.
• Rights related to automated decision-making - we do not use automated decision-making or profiling that significantly affects you.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at any time.

10. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against accidental loss, unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure. Access to your personal data is restricted to those who have a genuine need to process it.

While we take all reasonable steps to protect your information, no transmission of data over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Any transmission of data is at your own risk.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.