At Worker’s’ Educational Association (“WEA”), we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy
This notice explains how the WEA collects, uses, shares and retains your personal information and informs you about your choices regarding use, access and correction of your personal information. The WEA is committed to ensuring that any personal information it receives is secured and handled in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018 and Data Use and Access Act (DUAA) 2025.
Our notice applies to all learners registered on WEA courses and other service users.
By giving WEA your information or by using our website you are confirming that you are agreeing to be bound by this notice.
Who are we?
Your personal data is collected in England and Scotland by the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA), a charity registered in England and Wales (no. 1112775) and in Scotland (no. SC039239).
Address: WEA, First Floor, Coach Works, 21 The Calls, Leeds, LS2 7EH
Website: www.wea.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 303 3464
The WEA is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) as a Data Controller under reference Z4686639. We have appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO) to oversee our processing of personal information.
Contact details for the WEA Data Protection Officer
Email: [email protected]
What personal data will the WEA collect?
The WEA will collect the following information about you:
- Identifiers – including name, date of birth, nationality, gender, NI number, learner ID number and photographic ID.
- Contact details – including address, telephone number and e-mail address.
- Family details – including names and contact details of next of kin.
- Academic Attainment – including prior qualifications, examination and assessment results, and details of current study including process and attendance information.
- Disciplinary details – academic misconduct and details for mitigation.
- Employer details – if your employer is paying your course fees
- Learning support requirements.
- Safeguarding referrals or investigations details where applicable.
- Financial details – including bank details, fee receipts, outstanding debts, household income and details of any grants or benefits received as applicable.
- Images, audio, and video recordings.
- Records of your correspondence with WEA.
- Records of your attendance at any event hosted by WEA.
This list is not exhaustive, as we hold records of most contacts we have with you, or about you, and we process this information so we can deliver services to you.
We will only ask for personal information that is appropriate to enable us to deliver our services. In some cases, you can refuse to provide your details if you deem the request to be inappropriate. However, you should note that this may impact on our ability to provide some services to you if you refuse to provide information that stops us from doing so.
What does the WEA use my personal data for?
The WEA collects and processes your personal data for the following purposes:
- Send you marketing information that may be of interest to you.
- Respond to your enquiries and register you for any events hosted by WEA.
- Book you onto your chosen course and where applicable to claim funding.
- Deliver your chosen course of study and monitor your progress.
- Personalise our support to meet your individual needs.
- Ensure security on our premises
- Fulfil statutory reporting and statistical research purposes.
- Follow up post course for feedback and destination tracking.
How do we collect information about you?
The methods by which we collect information are:
- Website
- WEA Portal
- Call Centre (Support Centre)
- Application and booking form
We may occasionally receive your personal data indirectly from the following sources:
- Your local authority
- The police or other government
- UCAS
- Learning Aims Reference Service (LARS)
- Your employer
- Referral Agencies
How do we manage your personal information?
Processing of your personal information will be undertaken in accordance with the principles of the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation.
Access to information is restricted to authorised individuals on a strictly need to know basis. We will treat your personal information fairly and lawfully. We will ensure that information is:
- Processed for a specific purpose.
- Kept up to date, relevant and not excessive.
- Not kept any longer than necessary.
- Kept secure.
What are the lawful bases for processing information?
- Contract: When you book onto your chosen course you enter into a contractual agreement (learning agreement). If you choose to use services such as learning support this is also covered under your contractual agreement.
- Legal Obligation: WEA are governed by certain legislation, regulations and standards that may require us to retain your data as well as share it with a range of different organisations and public sector agencies or government bodies.
- Public Task: WEA is an education institution receiving public funding. As part of our involvement in performing a public task, we are required to use your personal data for statistical analysis and research purposes as well as share your personal data with a range of different organisations and public sector agencies or government bodies. Some processing will involve sharing your contact details with organisations who will ask you to complete surveys.
- Vital Interests: In an emergency we may be required to share your personal details with the Emergency Services or Local Authorities.
- Legitimate interest: We may process your personal data if it is necessary for our legitimate interests, and you would reasonably expect us to hold and process this data.
- Consent: You have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose, like sending us a query or subscribing to receive marketing information.
Who does the WEA share my personal data with?
When necessary or required we may share your personal information as follows:
Normally, only our employees and volunteers will be able to see and process your personal information. However, there may be times when we will share relevant information with third parties. When sharing personal information, this will be done on a strictly need to know basis and we will comply with all aspects of the Data Protection Act and UK General Data Protection.
When necessary or required we may share your personal information as follows:
- With third party service providers in connection with services performed on our behalf. For example, if we use a mailing house to distribute our letters.
- Our relationships with providers that are governed by our contracts with them which include strict data sharing agreements and confidentiality protocols.
- With local authorities and government departments in England and Scotland as necessary for administering justice, or exercising statutory, governmental, or other public duties.
- With relevant authorities in England and Scotland (for example: Department for Education, Ofsted, HM Revenues and Customs) In relation to accessing funding and assessment and collection of taxes.
- With other statutory organisations, for example social services and health authorities as necessary for exercising statutory duties.
This is not an exhaustive list as there are other circumstances where we may also be required to share information, for example:
- To meet our legal obligations
- In connection with legal proceedings (or where we are instructed to do so by Court Order)
- To protect the vital interests of an individual (in life-or-death circumstances)
- With mediation and advocacy organisations.
Partner and Associated Privacy Notices
The Department of Education requires that all learners have seen this privacy notice: training providers provide you with their privacy notices.
You can find the most up-to-date privacy notices via the links below:
Department for Education
Department for Education Privacy Notice
Individual Learner Record Privacy Notice 2025 to 2026
Mayoral Combined Authorities
Our partner Mayoral Combined Authorities require that WEA provide you with their privacy notice. You can find the most up-to-date MCA privacy notices via the links below:
Cornwall Council Adult Skills Fund Privacy Notice
Greater Manchester Combined Authority
Liverpool Combined Authority
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority
West Of England Combined Authority
West Midlands Combined Authority
York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority
Information Security
We are committed to ensuring your information is secure. WEA are Cyber Essentials + accredited and take technical measures to protect the confidentiality and integrity of personal information irrespective of the method of collection.
International transfers of data
Your data may be transferred internationally. If your data is transferred, WEA will legally safeguard your personal data by:
- Transferring to the EEA countries
- Transferring to the United States under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework
- Transferring under the “EU Model Clauses” agreement with the importing party.
Owing to the global nature of the Internet infrastructure, the information you provide may be transferred in transit to countries outside the European Economic Area that do not have similar protections in place regarding the protection of your personal data. Where this is the case, end-to- end encryption will be employed to transmit the data securely.
How long is personal data kept?
We will only hold your data for as long as reasonably necessary and in line with our Data Retention Schedule. This does mean that your data may be retained for a period of time after you have stopped using WEA’s services.
Does the WEA use automated decision making?
If you have been invited to participate in a learning activity on our e-learning platform (Canvas), we may use automated methods to mark any tests or assessments that you undertake. With the exception of this, the WEA does not use automated means to make decisions that affect you.
What rights do I have about my personal data and how it is used?
You have rights under Data Protection legislation regarding the information WEA processes about you:
- The right to be informed – to be informed why, where, and how we use your information.
- The right of access – to access personal information we hold about you.
- The right to rectification – to ask for your information to corrected if inaccurate or incomplete.
- The right to erasure – to ask for your information to be deleted or removed if there is no need for us to continue processing it.
- The right to restrict processing – to ask us to restrict the use of your personal information.
- The right to portability – to ask us to copy information from one system to another.
- The right to object – to object to how your information is used.
- Rights in relation to automated decision making – to challenge any decisions made without human intervention.
- The right to lodge complaint to the Information Commissioners Office, contact details are below.
- If our processing based upon your consent – to withdraw your consent.
How do I exercise my rights?
To exercise your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation, please send your request by email to [email protected].
How do I complain?
If you are unhappy with the way the way the WEA has handled your personal data and you would like to make a complaint, please contact our Data Protection Officer at [email protected].
If you don’t feel that the WEA has responded to your complaint in a satisfactory manner, you can then raise concerns about the processing of your personal data with the information Commissioner’s Officer (ICO). Please see https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ or call the ICO on 0303 123 1113.
Review Period
This privacy notice should be reviewed annually or if there is a significant change in the service we provide
