Privacy policy

At EUK Education (part of EngineeringUK) we use your personal data to help us provide services to promote engineering and technology to the public. We take our responsibilities to look after your personal data extremely seriously. In the sections below, we describe how we collect, process, store and share your personal data.

Who is responsible for your data and how to contact us

The Engineering and Technology Board (trading as EngineeringUK) is the Data Controller and responsible for your data. Our registered address is:

EngineeringUK
Northern & Shell Building
5th Floor, 10 Lower Thames Street
London
EC3R 6EN
UK

How to contact us

You can email us at [email protected] or you can write to the Associate Director of Business Services, Northern & Shell Building, 5th Floor, 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN.

What personal data do we collect about individuals?

Below is a list of the personal data we collect, what we use it for, and how long we'll keep it.

Delivery of programme and events

What data we collect for these purposes:

Name and contact details
Age
School address (if you are a home educator we may also collect the address you use to educate from)
Gender
Pronoun preferences
Photography and video recordings
Dietary information (including allergies and health conditions)
Information about your role, work and/or school
Information about support requirements
Records of meetings and decisions
Records of consent, where appropriate
Website user information (including user journeys and cookie tracking)
Information relating to complements or complaints

We also use the following Special Category Data to evaluate our services. This data is usually collected anonymously, however it may be identifiable for a short period of time after collection:

Racial or ethnic origin
Health information such as disabilities

How long we will keep your data
We keep this data in an identifiable format for the duration of your interaction with our programme or event. Once the event or programme has finished we may keep any of your details where necessary to respond to complaints or if we have a legal obligation to retain the records.

We will keep any photography and video recordings for up to 5 years after the event or programme has finished unless you notify us that you have withdrawn your consent in the meantime.

Any data that is not required for us to comply with our legal obligations, or to assist you with a complaint, is anonymised either at the point of collection or within 2 years after the event or programme has finished.

Sometimes we will use an external partner to administrate our events such as software or apps. These partners may process some personal information in additional to what we ask for. We encourage you to familiarise yourself with their privacy policies as well, as their retention schedule may differ from this one. We will always provide you with their privacy policy for review in these instances.

Receive donations, funding and organising fundraising activities

What data we collect for these purposes:

Name and contact details
Tax payer information (for gift aid purposes)

How long we will keep your data
We will keep this data for as long as required to comply with our legal obligations.

Service updates or marketing purposes

What data we collect for these purposes:

Name and contact details
Age
School address
Region
Marketing preference
Recoded images such as photos and videos
Cookies
Website and app user journey information
Records of consent, where appropriate
Form auto fill data with local browser storage. When you sign up for our programmes, events and download resources you may have to enter the same information a few times in different forms. This helps remember what you’ve said in the previous form and auto-populates the next one.

How long we will keep your data
We will keep any data provided for marketing purposes until you tell us you no longer want us to process this data. You can notify us of this by unsubscribing at the bottom of our emails or by contacting us using the details provided at the start of this policy.

You can reject or remove any cookies using the toggle available on our websites. For more information please refer to our data and cookie policy.

You can remove any auto form fill data by accessing your browser settings. We keep your form data for 12 months after first submission.

Research or archiving purposes (we always try to collect this information anonymously however there may be instances where this information if identifiable for a short period of time after collection)

What data we collect for these purposes:

Age
School or home address for carbon footprint search
Sex or sexual orientation
Website and app user journey information
Records of consent, where appropriate
Racial and ethnic origin
Health information such as disabilities

How long we will keep your data
We try to collect this data anonymously from the start, however there may be times where we have other information about you that when combined can identify you. In these instances we will use ‘suppression’ to ensure that at you cannot be identified.

Comply with legal requirements (where applicable)

What data we collect for these purposes

Name
Contact information
Identification documents
Financial transaction information
Health and safety information

How long we will keep your data
We will keep this data for as long as we are legally required to do so.

Recruitment purposes

What data we collect for these purposes:

Contact details
Date of birth
National Insurance number
Copies of passports or other photo ID
Employment history
Education history
Right to work information
Details of any criminal convictions
Martial/civil partnership status
If you are a carer
Socioeconomic background

To monitor and evaluate our workforce we also collect:

Racial and ethnic origin
Religion or belief
Health information
Gender information
Sex and sexual orientation

How long we will keep your data
We will keep this data for as long as we are legally required to do so.

If you become one of our employees data collected for monitoring and evaluation purposes will be kept throughout your employment and for 6 years after your employment with us has ended.

Non-employee data is kept for up to 12 months after you’ve applied with us.

Dealing with queries, complaints and claims

What data we collect for these purposes:

Name and contact details
Address
Purchase or service history
Accounts and records you may have with us
Correspondence

How long we will keep your data
We will keep this data for as long as we need to comply with any legal obligations.

Social media

Please remember that any personal information that you post on any of our social media sites or comment areas is not monitored and that information you share is visible to all members of the public.

How do we process the personal data we collect and what legal grounds do we have to process it?

How do we process your data?

To process your attendance at one of our events (eg visitor, exhibitor, volunteer)
We will share your information with our registration provider and our event logistics partners to ensure you can access the event.

To manage our current and future relationships in our contact network (for example, employers, sponsors, Corporate Members, government contacts) and trustees
We will use your information to contact you regarding how you are currently working with us. We will also make contact if we feel there is a possibility your organisation may work and support us to promote engineering across the UK.

To communicate with you regarding any feedback or evaluations we receive
We will use your information to communicate with you to follow up and analyse the feedback you give us.

To manage your request for careers resources
We will use your information to ensure that the resources you requested are sent to you at the correct location.

To process your job application
We will use your information to process your job application.

To provide you with any marketing material you have requested
We will use your information to provide you with any marketing material you have requested through one of our portals. You can unsubscribe to this at any point.

For employment purposes
We will use your information to manage and administer your employment with us.

What legal basis do we have for processing?

Providing services such as programmes and events

Legitimate interest – our vision is that the UK has the diverse workforce needed for engineering and technology to thrive, and to drive economic prosperity, improve sustainability and achieve net zero. We collect personal information from you in order to measure our impact, test that the work we are doing is achieving our vision and to help us administrate programmes and events where you interact with us.
We’re collecting or using your information because it benefits you, our organisation or someone else, without causing undue risk of harm to anyone. All of your data protection rights may apply, expect the right to portability.

Consent – we have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

Contract – we have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you. All of your data protection rights may apply except the right to object.

Legal obligation – we have to collect or use your information so we can comply with the law. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to erasure, the right to object and the right to data portability.

Receive donations or funding and organise fundraising activities

Contract – we have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you. All of your data protection rights may apply except the right to object.

Service updates or marketing purposes

Legitimate interest – where we need to contact you for service updates relating to one of our programme or events.

Research or archiving purposes

Comply with legal obligations

Legal obligations – we have to collect or use your personal information to comply with the law.

Vital interest – collecting or using the information is needed when someone’s physical or mental health or wellbeing is at urgent or serious risk. This includes if you need medical care during one of our events. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object and the right to portability

Recruitment purposes

Legitimate interest – we collect personal data throughout our recruitment process to monitor the diversity of our own workforce.

Dealing with queries, complaints or claims

Legal obligation – We have to we have to collect or use your information so we can comply with the law. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to erasure, the right to object and the right to data portability.

Where we get personal information from

Directly from you when you sign up to participate in our events or programmes
A teacher or parent/carer when they sign up to participate in our events or programmes on your behalf
Charities or voluntary sector organisations
Schools, colleges, universities or other educational organisations
Publicly available sources
Councils or other public sector organisations
Market research organisations
Mailing houses or other providers or marketing lists
Suppliers and service providers

How do we use your data to tailor the service we provide?

We use cookies placed on the browser of your device to collect data about how you use our websites and systems. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your device in the browser. We also use browser local storage on the website to help auto-populate any forms you’ve completed with us before. This saves you having to enter the same information multiple times. For more information about how we use cookies please refer to our data and cookies policy.

Where you have provided consent, we may also use your information to send you anything we think is relevant to you.

How can you manage marketing messages you receive?

We may send you marketing communications by email if you have indicated that you would like to hear from us with regards to the work that we do and the programmes we manage. If you would like to unsubscribe from these emails please follow the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email you have received. Please note that if you unsubscribe, we may keep a record of your personal information to ensure that we do not send any further communication.

How do we protect individual’s data?

We use extensive encryption and password protection to ensure that your data is held securely. Our organisation holds the ISO9001:2015 Quality Management accreditation. As part of our quality management system we regularly monitor our data collection and data security processes to ensure your data is always kept safe.

How do we share your personal data?

We may share your personal data with the following categories of recipients:

Event logistics partners – When you register for one of our events, your details may be shared with our registration provider, our external event management team, funders and sponsors (where appropriate) and certain suppliers and sponsors to administer your booking.

Delivery partners – We may share your data with our network of delivery partners across the UK who work with us to provide our STEM engagement activities.

Careers material distribution providers – We may share your data with our distribution partner who processes requests for careers materials. Please note as part of this process your data may be sent overseas.

Communications – We may share your data on our social media accounts, with media outlets, television, radio and others as appropriate, and where you have provided sufficient consent for us to do so.

Evaluation providers – We may share your data with our evaluation provider to help us undertake the evaluation of our activities.

Office operations – As part of our day to day operations EngineeringUK will share employee and visitor personal information with an external office services team.

Marketing – As part of our operations we will use various marketing software such as Mailchimp to contact you.

Funders – Funders may take pictures or videos at our events. Some of our programmes also requires funders to interact with our young people either as judges in competitions, providing careers advice, experience opportunities, and as part of their communication campaigns.

Others we may share personal information with:

Charities and voluntary organisations
Organisations we need to share information with for safeguarding reasons
Relevant regulatory authorities
External auditors or inspectors
Publicly on our website, social media or other marketing and information media
Third parties that help us run and secure our systems
Photographers we hire to record our events.

Sensitive personal data (special categories)

EngineeringUK processes sensitive personal data of its employees This will be processed in the strictest confidence and this sensitive personal data will only be shared outside the organisation with the following categories of recipients:

Employee administration and benefit providers – Health data will be collected to administer the health insurance; financial information will be shared with our pension, payroll providers and bankers.

HM Revenue and Customs – We will share financial information for tax processing purposes.

Professional advisors – For example, auditors, lawyers.

Children’s data

EngineeringUK will at times process personal data for young people under the age of 13 as part of our mission. As much as possible we will always attempt to collect the data we need anonymously, however this is not always possible or appropriate. We take our responsibility of safeguarding this information very seriously, and strictly limit processing of children's data to:

Events – We will sometimes need to know relevant health and safety related information to ensure our events are accessible to all. We normally have photographers at our events and use an opt-out system to ensure nobody has their picture taken if they do not want to. Details of the opt-out system are sent out in advance of the event.

Evaluation – We like to talk to the people who take part in our programmes. This is an important part of our evaluation process. Details of the data we collect for these purposes are always shared in advance with the relevant people. Our legal basis for processing data collected for evaluation purposes is legitimate interest. We attempt to collect this anonymously, but sometimes the group sizes are too small for this to be effective, we therefore use 'suppression' to ensure no person can be identified from the evaluation data. Please contact us for more information if you have further questions.

Communications campaigns – We think it is important to celebrate the achievements of those we get to interact with. Where we have sufficient parental consent we will use pictures, videos, stories and case studies to celebrate and draw attention to the young people we get to work with and their achievements.

Sending data outside the UK

Some of your data may sent outside of the UK as some of our systems for storing information may have storage locations outside of the UK. We will ensure that if any data is transferred in this way that the data processors are in a country that is part of a data bridge, has adequacy under the GDPR, or if the country does not have adequacy then we will ensure that the data processors are subject to binding corporate rules or standard contractual clauses. If you would like more information, please contact us at [email protected]

What are your rights

You are entitled to see copies of all the personal data that we hold on you. You also have the right to make changes to that data, request that your data be deleted or request that your data is moved to another organisation. To make a subject access request, use the Contact us form and add 'Subject access request' in the subject line.

Please note that if you registered for one of our Big Bang events you can edit your details by logging onto the registration system.

If you consented to us sending you newsletters and information about our programmes and activities then you can unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of the email.

For more information on your rights under the GDPR please visit the Information Commissioners Office website.

How to make a complaint

If you are unsatisfied with the way your data is being processed we please contact us at [email protected] in the first instance to resolve the matter.

If however you are still unsatisfied you can contact the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Changes to this policy

This policy may change from time to time and if we make any changes to this policy we will inform you. This policy was last updated in October 2024.