Privacy Policy

Introduction

Please read this notice carefully. It contains important information about how we process your personal information.

We are GetMyFirstJob Ltd (trading as Talent People, Company Registration No 06685719, Registered Office 61 Westway, Caterham, England, CR3 5TQ). We are the Data Controller for the data collected when you visit our website(s). As a company we are committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of your personal information. We want you to be confident that your information will be properly protected whilst in our possession.

This notice explains how we, and carefully selected third parties we work with, will collect and use the personal information of candidates who register with us.

Our representative for the purpose of data protection compliance can be contacted at: data@getmyfirstjob.co.uk

If you have any questions about our use of your personal information, or you wish to exercise one of your rights under data protection legislation, please contact us at data@getmyfirstjob.co.uk

We keep this notice under regular review. Any changes we make to this notice will be posted on our website with a prominent notice and, where appropriate, we will notify you by email.

Our Website

Any other external websites that may be linked to our website will be subject to their own data protection statements/privacy policies which may be different to this notice. You should check carefully the content of those third party notices before you submit any personal information to them.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information through the internet is never completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal data at all times, we cannot guarantee the security of the data you send to us through our website. Any transmission made is therefore at your own risk. Once we have received your information we use strict procedures and state of the art security features to protect against unauthorised access.

Information We Collect From You & How We Use It

Candidate Registration

Category of Information: Information you give to us in order to register for our service (Voluntary Information)

Where it comes from: Completing our Registration Process

In order for us to notify you of appropriate work experience programmes, we need to gather some personal data about you and understand the types of career or organisations you are looking for. Our Registration Process has been designed to ensure we are only collecting the information we need in order to provide our service to you.

We will ask you to:

• Create an account and password so that you can securely log on to our website and update your profile, change your preferences and see current work experience programmes.
• Provide your email address, postcode, date of birth, and contact telephone numbers. This information is collected to allow us to contact you to provide support.
• Create a profile reflecting the types of careers, interests or industries you are interested in.

You can also let us know (Optional — Special Category Data):

• Your gender
• Your ethnic origin

Please note that some of the information in the fields above constitutes sensitive personal data (also known as Special Category Personal Data under UK GDPR). This information will always be optional.

We will only collect this data on the basis of your consent where you voluntarily disclose these details to us. Failure to provide this information will not impact upon your ability to register. We can still provide you with our service without this information.

As we rely on consent as our lawful basis for processing this data, if you chose to provide it, you will be asked to declare (at the end of the Candidate Registration Process) that you're happy for us to process this data as outlined in this privacy notice. If you have any concerns, please do not volunteer this information/tick the declaration.

Please be assured that once this optional data is collected, it will only be used for statistical reporting. If you later decide to withdraw your consent, we'll stop using your personal identifiable data in future reports. Any data already anonymised can't be removed, but it can't be linked back to you. To find out more, please get in touch with us at data@getmyfirstjob.co.uk

We will not share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes. The information you provide to us will be stored securely by us and our data processors.

We will use the contact information you provide to keep you up to date on other opportunities related to careers and employment that may be of interest to you.

Children and Young People

Some of our services, programmes and competitions are used by young people and students. Where we process the personal data of children (anyone under 18), we apply additional safeguards. These include:

• Using clear, age-appropriate language to explain how we use their information
• Limiting the personal data we collect to what is necessary for the relevant activity
• Taking particular care where we use children's data for competitions, incentives, XP-based tiers or other profiling

Lawful Basis for Processing

We only collect and use your personal information when we have a valid legal reason to do so. Depending on the context, we rely on one or more of the following lawful bases under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR):

• Consent — For optional data, marketing communications and entry into competitions or prize draws where you actively opt in.
• Contract — To provide access to our platform and services, and to administer any competition or prize you have entered and won.
• Legitimate Interests — For service improvement, anonymised reporting and running competitions or rewards schemes where we have balanced our interests against your rights and freedoms.

The Use of AI

Category of Information: Information you give to us during your use of the site and services (Voluntary and Usage Information)

Where it comes from: Interactions with AI-powered features on the website, such as chatbots, recommendation engines, and career guidance tools

We use AI tools (e.g., chatbots, recommendation engines) to provide personalised guidance. These tools:

• Operate within a secure, closed UK-based Azure environment
• Do not train on your personal data
• Are monitored by humans and include hardcoded safeguards
• Do not make automated decisions with legal or significant effects

Retention: AI interaction logs are stored securely for user reference and retained for two years, in line with our retention policy.

If you use an AI feature (such as a chatbot, career advice tool, or recommendation engine), we may collect information that you provide through your interaction, including:

• Your goals or preferences (such as desired job roles, skills, or interests)
• Your engagement with modules, quizzes, or feedback forms

We use carefully selected tools powered by large language models (LLMs), such as OpenAI. These tools are installed within our own UK-based secure infrastructure. We use your input to generate responses but do not retain or train on your personal data. Your information is not stored or reused by our AI tools and is not used for automated decision-making with legal or significant effects.

We use AI tools in a limited and controlled way to provide personalised experiences and feedback using technology that improves your experience with career and work experience opportunities. You're always in control of your data. If you ever want to know what information we've collected through AI tools, or ask us to stop using it, just get in touch.

Surveys & Promotions

Surveys: We occasionally run surveys to understand how you felt about our service/gather information about your experience. If you choose to complete a survey for us, you may be asked for your name, age, gender, address and employer or education provider. We use this information to analyse the responses in the survey.

We currently use third party tools for surveys, such as Microsoft Forms, to seek feedback from users of our website, products and services. We will only use the information from the survey to improve our website, products and services.

It is in our legitimate business interests to understand how you feel about our website, products and services. Completion of the survey is entirely voluntary. After initial collection of your personal information for a survey, your information will be anonymised to allow us to report back on our performance.

Competitions (on our website): If you decide to enter a competition through our website, you will be asked to provide basic contact information (name, address, telephone number, and email address) so that we can contact you to let you know if you've been lucky enough to win. For some competitions, your eligibility, tier or chances of winning may also depend on your activity within one of our programmes (for example, XP or similar participation metrics). In these cases, we will use information we already hold about your programme activity to calculate your XP, place you into tiers and select winners, as described in the competition terms and conditions.

As part of entering the competition you will be asked to confirm a clear opt-in statement. Your entry is entirely voluntary. If you do not agree with the content of this privacy notice or the competition terms and conditions, you should not enter the competition.

Dependent on the type of competition, you may also be asked to provide other personal information (such as a photograph). You must not submit any photos that contain images of other people unless you have that person's express consent.

In entering the competition, you confirm that you meet the eligibility requirements of the competition (including any age restrictions). We may require you to provide proof of your eligibility. We reserve our right to disqualify you if your conduct is contrary to the spirit or intention of the competition or you are otherwise found to be in breach of the competition terms and conditions.

Social media competitions: If you decide to enter a competition through our corporate page on a social media platform, you will, in entering the competition, provide your personal information in the form of your online profile and this privacy notice will apply. Your act of entering the competition will show your consent to us processing your online profile for the purpose of administering the competition.

If you are selected as our winner we will contact you through your online profile via direct personal messaging. At this stage, we may ask you for additional personal information so that we can administer your prize. You are free to give us this information or not. If you do not provide this information we may be unable to distribute your prize.

Before entering a competition through a social media platform you should check the privacy notice of the platform to ensure you're comfortable with how they may also use your personal information.

Information relating specifically to competitions, rewards and prize draws (such as entries, XP-based tiering, and prize fulfilment records) will normally be retained only for as long as necessary to operate the competition, verify the outcome, handle any queries or complaints, and meet our legal or regulatory obligations. This will usually fall within the general two-year retention period described above. After this, the information will be securely deleted or anonymised.

Case Studies, Ambassadors & Contacting Us

We run an ‘Ambassador’ network to allow individuals to share their experiences and raise awareness of opportunities which exist. We use these stories and others to run articles in our newsletter and on our website documenting individual candidate experiences. Should you be happy to participate in the ambassador programme or contribute to articles we will explain what personal information we would like you to provide and ask for your consent to use this in our newsletter/website or at events. This may include a photograph or video of you.

Contacting Us

When you contact us, any personal information you provide will be protected in the same way as we treat our commercial information. We will monitor any emails we receive (plus attachments) for any viruses or malicious software. We will promptly delete any email which is illegal or presents harm to us.

In order to process your enquiry and/or investigate a problem we may ask you to provide your username and basic contact information (name, address, telephone number and email address) so we can verify your identity and deal with your enquiry/resolve the problem.

We may make up an electronic file of the enquiry/problem which will contain any personal information you have given us. We will only use your personal information here to investigate and respond to you with the outcome of your enquiry/our investigation.

You do not have to provide this information to us; it is entirely voluntary. However, we may be limited in our ability to deal with your enquiry and respond to you if contact information is not provided. We will only correspond with you in the way you have asked us to.

Information We Collect About You & Your Device

Each time you visit our website we will automatically collect the following information:

Technical information: Including your operating system, the browser you use, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, your log-in information and the internet protocol address used to connect your computer to the internet (Device Information).

Log information: Including traffic data, the resources you use, where you have clicked through to our website from that of a third party, the domain name of the connecting website, page response times, download errors, length of your visit, page interaction information and browsing behaviour.

We collect Device Information so that we can ensure adequate technical support for our website and ensure it is functioning properly on all operating systems/browsers. We also need this information to allow you to participate in interactive features on the website where you choose to do so.

We collect Log Information so that we can better understand how our website is used and improve its functionality/content. We want to provide you with a customised service.

Your Device Information and Log Information will be combined with that of our other users and analysed or reported back to selected third parties in statistical form. It will not be possible to identify you from this aggregated information.

Pixel tags and cookies work together to tailor our website. These are also used in our email communications to understand whether you have used our website from the email and record whether it has been read. You can manage this collection of data by adjusting your cookie settings.

Marketing

We'll send you emails to help you use the platform — like reminders, updates on your progress, certificates, or support messages. These are called transactional emails and don't need extra permission.

We may also send you updates about new opportunities or events. These are marketing emails, and you can choose whether to receive them. You can change your preferences anytime in your account or by clicking ‘unsubscribe’ in the email.

We will not use your personal data to directly market to you any other products or services. You can manage the types of communications you receive from us at any time by clicking on the appropriate link within our emails or logging in to your account.

Email Correspondence

When you email us for support, any personal information you provide (such as your name, email address, and details of your enquiry) will be treated with the same level of protection as our commercial information.

We may create an electronic record of your enquiry, which will include the personal information you have provided. This record will be stored securely and used only for the purpose of responding to your enquiry, resolving any issues, and maintaining an audit trail for accountability and compliance.

We will monitor incoming emails (including attachments) for viruses or malicious software and will promptly delete any email that is illegal or poses a security risk.

Providing personal information in your email is voluntary; however, if you do not provide sufficient details, we may be limited in our ability to respond effectively. We will only correspond with you using the method you have requested.

Retention: Support emails and related records will be retained for two (2) years from the date of the last correspondence, in line with our candidate data retention policy. After this period, emails will be securely deleted. You may request earlier deletion at any time, subject to any legal or regulatory obligations.

Your Information

Do I have to provide this information?

Any personal information you provide to us is based solely on your consent and is entirely voluntary. We will be unable to perform our service or enter into a contract with you if you fail to provide the mandatory information in the Candidate Registration Process.

Retention Period

Your personal information will be held for a period of two years from:

• The date you last used our website; or
• (if later) The date you registered with us; or
• (if later) The date you last spoke to us.

During the time we hold your personal information, access to it will be restricted on a “need to know” basis. If you ask us to delete your personal data before this time, we'll do so unless we're required to keep it for legal reasons.

Keeping Your Personal Information Up to Date

If you become aware that any personal data we hold about you is incorrect or there are any changes to your personal details, please log onto our website and update your information. If you have any difficulties doing so please contact us at data@getmyfirstjob.co.uk.

Where We Store Your Data

The data that you provide to us may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) by us and/or by the carefully selected third parties we work with. If we ever need to store or access your data outside the UK or European Economic Area (EEA), we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include:

• UK International Data Transfer Agreements (IDTAs)
• Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
• Transfers to countries with an adequacy decision from the UK Government

These measures ensure your data is protected to the same high standards required under UK data protection law.

We, and third parties we work with, may use cloud platforms to store your personal information. We will only use state of the art cloud platforms which give adequate guarantees that your personal data is secure. We will treat the storage of your personal data to the same level of protection as we treat our commercial information.

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this notice. All information you provide to us is also stored on our secure servers.

To find out more about storage of your data, and the safeguards that are in place to protect your data outside of the EEA, contact us at: data@getmyfirstjob.co.uk

Account Security

Where you have created a username and password as part of the Registration Process in order to access our website, please keep this confidential. Please do not share your account username and password with anyone else as this may compromise the security of your personal information.

Automated Decision-Making

We do not make any decisions about you using automated electronic processes. This means we don't use computers to make decisions about you without a person being involved.

Your Rights

We recognise that the personal data we hold about you belongs to you and you should have control over how your personal data is being used. You can:

• Ask us to have access to, and for a copy of, the personal data we hold about you
• Request that we amend or delete your personal data
• Ask us to stop processing your personal data altogether or in a certain way
• Change your mind about how we use your personal data. If you've given us permission to use certain information — like your ethnicity or gender — you can withdraw that permission whenever you like. We'll stop using personal identifiable data from the moment you tell us. If we've already used it in anonymised reports, it can't be removed — but it can't be linked back to you.
• Issue a complaint to the appropriate authority — see ico.org.uk for more information
• Request that we transfer your personal data to another provider (data portability). This means you can ask us to send your data to another service if you want to move your account.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, or discuss them in more detail, please contact us at data@getmyfirstjob.co.uk.

We need to make you aware that even where you exercise a right detailed above, we may not be able to comply with that request if an exception in law applies. Where this is the case, we will notify you and explain why we're unable to meet your request.