Data security, privacy and eligibility policies

Your data in CareerConnect

You must not share your CareerConnect account with another person, this constitutes a breach of the University acceptable use policy. This includes sharing passwords or impersonating another person to gain access. Appointment allocations and event registrations may not be shared with or used by anyone else.

In the case of a suspected security breach by students this will be reported to IT services, the Information Governance Office and your School, this may result in your IT account being suspended and disciplinary action.
Graduates will have their CareerConnect accounts suspended pending investigation, your account may be terminated.

Your personal information in CareerConnect includes information about your programme of study, phone and email contacts, appointment notes and any data you upload. Eg a CV, application or feedback form.

  1. The Careers Service processes personal information in accordance with all relevant data protection legislation. Further information about data protection at the University.
  2. Personal information will be kept in CareerConnect for up to 6 years from the end of the academic year in which your complete your course.
  3. Usage of a specific service /event/ pathway will be supplied to staff administering a degree programme or activity where usage of that service is an accreditation or academic requirement.
  4. The Careers Service will use your personal information to contact you regarding your appointments and careers related opportunities or events and how to access our services as a graduate.
  5. Your personal information in CareerConnect is treated confidentially and with sensitivity and can be accessed by staff from the Careers Service. On the occasion that serious concerns are raised regarding your wellbeing staff may contact your school or other student support staff to ensure your safety.

Your data in CareerSet

  • Students and graduates are required to opt-in to the CareerSet terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy before being able to access the service, which can be found on the CareerSet website: https://careerset.io/privacy and https://careerset.io/terms.php.
  • Careers Service will have access to student and graduate information including CV scores, Cover Letters and Feedback reports. This information will be used to inform CV and Cover Letter benchmarking criteria, develop Careers support materials and offer further CV and Cover Letter application advice. CVs will not be accessible and are not stored in Careerset, all other information will be retained in line with The University of Manchester’s data retention policies.
  • More information can be found Privacy and Information Governance.

Statistical data on Careers Service Engagement

Data may be shared internally within The University of Manchester

  1. We will not share data on the usage of a specific service, or event or activity where that would identify individuals. In these cases we will supress numbers under 5 or express the information at a higher level e.g by school or discipline.
  2. We will not share details from appointment notes or reasons for visit or CVs, applications or feedback forms where it would identify the individuals involved. (Unless there are serious concerns about your wellbeing, in this case other University departments and services may be contacted)

For more information please see the University Privacy notice here:

Feedback

  • Feedback on appointments, events or other careers resources or activities will be used internally for service monitoring and evaluation
  • Anonymous comments may be used in publicity.

Appointments

  • Careers guidance appointments held in the Atrium are conducted in private rooms or pods and are considered confidential. Those held in other on campus locations may not be.
  • Drop-in sessions on campus and conversations at the Careers desk are held in open areas and are not considered confidential.
  • Careers appointments delivered online e.g. via zoom will not be recorded without your permission.
  • Your appointment notes can be accessed by Careers Service staff and are confidential within the Careers Service. On the occasion that serious concerns are raised regarding your wellbeing staff may contact your school or other student support staff to ensure your safety.
  • You will receive an appointment confirmation by email upon booking. Where an appointment is booked more than one day in advance you will also receive a reminder by email (and text where a usable phone number is listed)

Telephone conversations

  • Telephone conversations are not recorded. However any information given for the purpose of communicating your question to staff may be recorded in an email or in a careers appointment note.

Email

  • Once the purpose of your email is resolved we will keep our reply to you including your initial query for up to 2 months.

Webchat

  • Transcripts are not kept beyond the end of the live chat. Any details taken for the purpose of further communication with staff for appointment booking or other enquiries may be stored on email or your careers appointment notes.

Website, blog and social media

  • The information and advice given via our website is selected by our staff to be suitable for students and graduates of this institution. We will not list all available sites in any market, and reserve the right to update our website at our discretion. Unsolicited emails requesting links may not be responded to due to the volume of these requests that we receive.
  • We do not accept unsolicited blog posts. All blog posts are written by careers staff, currents students or alumni.
  • Careers staff select content for our social media channels based on our advertising policy and relevance to our audience.

Eligibility and attendance policy

To find out which services are available to you please see Eligibility for services

  • Each appointment type has eligibility in terms of who can use it and how many are available in a time period. These are listed on our website. Eligibility may be conferred by your degree programme, level of study, status – student or graduate etc; or via activities where you have achieved the threshold required to attend the appointment or event.
  • If you are unable to attend an appointment and fail to cancel it in advance of the start time it will count as one of your allocation and you may not be able to book another in that time period. If you have been unable to cancel your booking due to extenuating circumstances and would like to book an additional appointment please raise a Question via CareerConnect stating the reason you were not able to attend. We do understand that sometimes things happen preventing you attending an appointment but please remember our services are highly popular and not cancelling an appointment prevents another student accessing the service in your place.
  • If you repeatedly fail to attend appointments concerns may be raised regarding your wellbeing which may result in us contacting you or in the case of serious concerns other university departments and services. Failing to attend multiple appointments with no mitigating circumstances may result in you being blocked from attending appointments in future.