EDU WIZE GROUP (PTY) LTD

Privacy-related requests, objections, or concerns regarding personal information may be sent directly to popia@edu-wize.co.za or submitted through your Applicant Portal account.

The information we collect depends on your relationship with Edu Wize and the programme or opportunity for which you are applying.

For applicants and learners, this may include your:

• name, surname, ID number and date of birth;
• telephone number and other contact information;
• residential address and province;
• gender and race/equity information where required for lawful programme, funding, SETA, employment equity or B-BBEE purposes;
• education, qualifications and certificates;
• CV and employment or learnership history;
• information about previous or current learnerships;
• disability information where relevant to a particular opportunity, reporting requirement or reasonable support;
• supporting medical/disability evidence where genuinely required;
• identity and qualification documents;
• application, interview and selection information;
• contracts and learnership documentation;
• attendance, assessment, workplace and programme information;
• banking and tax information where required after selection for contracting, stipend, payroll or programme administration; and
• other information reasonably required to administer a specific learnership, bursary, employment or training programme.

We may process your information to:

• assess whether you meet the requirements of a learnership, bursary, training or employment opportunity;
• communicate with you about your application;
• verify your identity, qualifications and supporting documents;
• conduct authorised screening or verification where required;
• shortlist and interview applicants;
• refer suitable applicants to sponsoring clients, prospective employers or workplace hosts;
• prepare employment, learnership and other programme agreements;
• administer stipends, payroll or bursary payments where applicable;
• register and administer learners with SETAs, QCTO, AQPs and other relevant bodies;
• manage training, attendance, assessments, moderation, workplace learning and certification;
• meet client, funding, B-BBEE, employment equity, accreditation, audit and reporting requirements;
• comply with applicable legal and regulatory obligations;
• protect the integrity and security of our systems and programmes; and
• consider applicants for future learnership opportunities where they have chosen to give us permission to do so.

Information and documents submitted to Edu Wize may be verified through authorised verification providers, including MIE, where applicable.

Where a specific background check requires additional consent or documentation, Edu Wize will obtain the appropriate consent or documentation before the relevant check is conducted.

Certain programmes may require demographic, equity or disability information because of funding, SETA, employment equity, B-BBEE, client or programme requirements.

Where disability information or supporting medical evidence is required, Edu Wize will aim to collect only the information necessary for the relevant purpose.

Access to sensitive information is strictly restricted to authorised persons who require it for their work.

Edu Wize uses a combination of secure internal and authorised external systems.

Our primary data is stored on an Edu Wize server located at our office in Johannesburg.

We also use authorised systems and service providers, including:

• Revil/Revilson for applicant and learner information processing;
• Google Drive for authorised cloud storage and backup;
• IronTree for backup services; and
• Sage One for payroll processing.

Access to Edu Wize systems and personal information is restricted according to staff responsibilities and authorised access.

Where an authorised service provider processes or stores information outside South Africa, Edu Wize will manage such processing in accordance with applicable POPIA requirements and appropriate safeguards.

We do not simply provide your complete application file to every client or third party.

Where necessary and lawful, relevant information may be shared with:

• the company sponsoring your learnership;
• a prospective employer or workplace host;
• SETAs;
• QCTO and relevant AQPs;
• authorised verification providers such as MIE;
• assessors, moderators and other authorised programme personnel;
• education or training institutions where relevant;
• banks or payment providers where necessary;
• auditors, professional advisers and authorised compliance providers;
• regulators or public authorities where legally required; and
• authorised IT, cloud, backup and system service providers.

Edu Wize will aim to share only the information reasonably required for the specific purpose. For example, if a sponsoring client requires information to prepare your employment contract and pay your stipend, Edu Wize may provide the information necessary for those purposes.

If you are unsuccessful in your current application, you may choose to allow Edu Wize to keep your application for future suitable learnership opportunities.

This is optional.

Where you give us this permission, we may retain your application and supporting documents for up to 24 months so that we can consider you for suitable future opportunities.

Before this permission expires, we may contact you and give you the opportunity to renew it. Your permission will not be automatically renewed.

You may withdraw your future-opportunity consent at any time.

If you do not give us permission to keep your application for future opportunities, your information will not be placed in our future-opportunity recruitment pool.

Edu Wize does not intend to keep personal information indefinitely. The retention period depends on the type of record and the reason it was collected.

For unsuccessful applicants who consent to future consideration, the recruitment-pool period is generally a maximum of 24 months, unless consent is withdrawn earlier or another lawful reason applies.

Successful learners' records may need to be retained for longer periods because of SETA, QCTO/AQP, employment, tax, contractual, funding, audit, certification or other legal requirements.

Once information is no longer reasonably required and there is no lawful reason to retain it, it will be securely deleted, destroyed or de-identified in accordance with Edu Wize's retention procedures.

Where available, applicants may use their secure Edu Wize/Revilson account to:

• view their application status and reference number;
• update permitted personal/contact information;
• replace incorrect or outdated documents;
• view their privacy/consent status;
• withdraw consent for future learnership consideration;
• request correction of personal information; and
• request deletion of personal information.

A deletion request does not necessarily mean that every record can immediately be deleted. Edu Wize may be legally, contractually or otherwise lawfully required to retain certain records. Where this applies, we will consider the request and retain only the information we remain authorised or required to keep.

Subject to POPIA and other applicable laws, you may ask Edu Wize to:

• confirm whether we hold personal information about you;
• provide access to your personal information;
• correct inaccurate, incomplete or outdated information;
• delete or destroy information that we are no longer authorised or required to retain;
• consider an objection to certain processing where applicable; or
• withdraw consent where our processing relies on your consent.

Edu Wize takes reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, damage, unauthorised access, misuse, disclosure or destruction.

Our measures include, where appropriate:

• password-controlled systems;
• individual staff user accounts;
• role-based access;
• multi-factor authentication where supported;
• restricted access to sensitive information;
• physical protection of our Johannesburg server;
• firewall, endpoint and system security controls;
• controlled Google Drive and backup permissions;
• secure backup and recovery processes;
• access removal when staff leave or change roles;
• confidentiality requirements; and
• security incident and data-breach procedures.

No electronic system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but Edu Wize takes reasonable measures to protect the information entrusted to us.

If Edu Wize becomes aware of a security compromise involving personal information, we will investigate and take reasonable steps to contain and remedy the incident.

Where POPIA requires notification to the Information Regulator and/or affected individuals, Edu Wize will follow the applicable notification requirements.

If you have a question, concern or complaint about how Edu Wize handles your personal information, please contact us first so that we can investigate the matter.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa if you believe your personal information has been processed in breach of POPIA.

Edu Wize may update this Privacy Notice when our systems, processes, legal requirements or services change.

The latest version will be published on our website.