Information that we collect and use about you 
We hold information on which ASPIRENorth activities you participate in during your time at school.  Depending on the activities you are involved with, this may include name, address, emergency contact information, health information, date of birth and on occasion other information may be collected where necessary.  When you leave school, we collect information on what your next steps are, e.g. University or College, secured employment, started an apprenticeship etc. 
 
As a parent/guardian of a pupil on the ASPIRENorth programme we hold your name, address, contact information and those of an emergency contact supplied by you. 
 
Why we process this information, and our lawful basis 
To administer the ASPIRENorth activities you participate in. 
As a participant on the ASPIRENorth programme we will use the details you submit in the pupil agreement to administer the activity. 
To evaluate our programme based on where you go after leaving school. 
To understand whether the ASPIRENorth activities help pupils to make an informed decision about the future. 
To contact you with information that you might find useful for example, details of events and initiatives that you may wish to engage in during school and after you leave school or requirements for entry to courses within Higher Education. 
  
Legal basis for processing 
Under data protection legislation, we are required to identify our legal basis for processing your data. This means that we need to have an appropriate reason for using your data and in this instance, this is your consent for your personal data to be processed as part of administering your attendance or that of your child/young person in your care at ASPIRENorth events. 
 
Disclosing your information 
This information is also passed to our partner institutions for the purpose of delivering an activity as a part of the ASPIRENorth programme to help them to organise the sessions. 
  
We share your details with Skills Development Scotland (SDS) who then let us know what you decide to do after you leave school, e.g. University or College, secure a job, start an apprenticeship. 
Only approved ASPIRENorth partners have access to your data for the purpose of running events and health and safety and only the relevant partner will see your personal information. For a list of our partners, please see here. 
 
SDS is Scotland’s national skills body. It works with partners, like ASPIRENorth, to provide services that deliver the very best outcomes for Scotland’s people, businesses and the economy. We share this data to evaluate how well this programme is helping young people decide on what to do after school whether this be go on to university, college, apprenticeships or employment. We have a Data Sharing Agreement in place with SDS and the transfer of data is all done through a secure server to ensure your data is safely shared between the two parties. This information is used to create statistics that are used in our annual report and promotional materials but you will never be named or identified in these publications without prior consent. 
  
The third party suppliers we use for IT support also have access to your personal information in order to provide these services to ASPIRENorth and the University of Aberdeen. 
  
We may disclose personal information to other recipients in exceptional circumstances e.g. medical emergency or when required to do so by law. 
 
How long your information is kept 
The University retains information about your ASPIRENorth activities whilst you are at school and what your next steps are, after leaving school, such as University or College; secured a job or started an apprenticeship. 
This information is retained for up to 10 years.  After 5 years, the personal data will be anonymised and may be used to provide statistical information on the work of ASPIRENorth. 
Your data may be kept in paper format, on the University of Aberdeen network and within a third-party online system, Upshot, until you have finished S6. As some will leave school earlier than this, we will keep the information until you would have finished S6 even if you leave before this time. After this, we may store your data in paper format, on the University of Aberdeen network and within Upshot for a maximum of 5 years so we can see what you get up to after leaving school.  You can view the Upshot privacy notice here. 
You have rights over the personal data that is collected by ASPIRENorth, for further information see here.

Any enquiries regarding data protection should be made to the University’s Data Protection Officer at dpa@abdn.ac.uk