Safeguarding
The College is committed to safeguarding the welfare of its students, particularly young people under the age of 18 and vulnerable adults. To meet those responsibilities the College will ensure that relevant and effective safeguarding practices exist and are actively promoted within the College. All students have the right to be safe and protected both within the College and whilst engaged in College-related activities, and their safety, welfare and well-being are of paramount importance.
The College has a number of policies and procedures which aim to safeguard students. More about safeguarding young people can be found under the parental section of the website. You can see a copy of the Safeguarding Policy by clicking the link below:
Child Protection\Safeguarding Policy
COMMENTS, COMPLIMENTS AND COMPLAINTS
The College aims to offer high standards of education to its students and a high degree of efficiency in the administration of all related services. Feedback on the quality of the services provided is welcomed, whether they are comments, compliments or complaints.
If you would like to provide feedback or a compliment regarding the service you have received, these should be sent to the Principal who will share them with the appropriate staff.
What is a complaint?
If students, parents (of under 18s), employers or anyone else in the College community is unhappy with a course or a service provided by the College, then please talk to a member of staff.
What is the procedure for complaints?
It may be clear to you that your complaint could be dealt with ‘on the spot’ by an obvious person – in which case, by all means, discuss this with the member of staff. If you are satisfied with the outcome then, of course, there is no need for any further action.
In cases where an immediate course of action is not apparent, or if you are not satisfied with the outcome of your initial complaint, then write to the Principal.
What will happen in response to my complaint?
Having written to the Principal specifying the object of your complaint, you will receive an acknowledgement within three working days of its receipt at the Principal’s office. An initial response to the complaint, informing you of which senior member of staff the Principal has asked to deal with your complaint, will be sent to you within ten working days.
Your complaint will be fully and fairly investigated. In the majority of cases you will have received notification of the outcome of the investigation and resulting action or proposed redress within two weeks of receipt of your complaint. You will be kept informed if the investigation takes longer than two weeks.
What do I do if I am not satisfied with the outcome?
You should write to the Principal again and seek an acceptable solution.
What if I want my complaint kept confidential?
Your wishes will be respected and only those directly involved would normally be aware of the details of your complaint.
You will not be treated adversely because you have complained – on the contrary, your complaint will be dealt with positively and with respect.
Will any record of the complaint be kept or given to anyone else?
The details of your complaint will only be known to those directly involved. All complaints are logged in ways which do not identify individuals and the information is provided to relevant key managers only in order to continually improve our performance.
Can I obtain help in making my complaint?
Yes – Lecturers, Student Services and the Information Centre will be pleased to offer any assistance you may need.
Equality & Diversity
The College is committed to ensuring that all staff and students are treated fairly and will not experience inequality, prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of their: age; colour; disability; family responsibility; gender; health; marital status; mode of study; nationality; race or ethnic group; religion or belief; sexual orientation; social background; trade union activity; type of conduct; unrelated criminal convictions and other irrelevant criteria.
The College’s commitment to equality and the approaches taken to ensure a fair and diverse College community are established in the Equality and Race Equality Policy
In May 2011, the College devised a Single Equality Scheme addressing all 'protected characteristics' as defined by the Equality Act 2010. The Scheme will replace all existing policies and plans in relation to Equality & Diversity. Until approved by the College Corporation, the existing policies remain in place.
Information concerning the College’s compliance with the Equality Duty
Farnborough College of Technology aims to meet fully the requirements of the equality duty for public bodies. Issues of equality and diversity continue to be given a significant degree of prominence throughout the range of the College’s activities. The aims and values of the College are made explicit in the Equality Policy and the revised Single Equality Scheme, which clearly sets out the College’s determination to eliminate all unlawful forms of discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
The College carefully monitors both information relating to employees who share protected characteristics and also information relating to students sharing protected characteristics, who are the key users of College services.
Equality Duty Information
Freedom of Information
The College is committed to being open and honest in the conduct of its operations and to fully comply with the Freedom of Information Act subject to any exemptions that may apply.
The College Academic Registrar is the College's main contact with the Information Commissioner, responsible for Data Protection and Freedom of Information issues, or authorised deputy.
Privacy Policy
When we collect information from you, which we need to keep, we will tell you why we are collecting it, and will only use it for the purpose we stated.
- Information will only be divulged to yourself or those who have a legitimate need for it in progressing any of the purposes for which it was collected
- Once the information is no longer needed, it will be destroyed
- If you would like to see our full Data Protection Policy, please contact the Data Protection Officer at the college
Data Protection Declaration
Farnborough College of Technology is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998. Data collected by the College will normally be used for educational administration (including publication of the graduation booklet, LRC and Computer Centre uses), statistical, research and health and safety practices. Your data will be used to contact you if you fail to return library books etc to the LRC as requested.
The personal information you provide is passed to the Chief Executive of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and, where required, the Young People's Learning Agency for England (YPLA) to enable those organisations to fulfil their statutory obligations, principally under the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. Both organisations are registered as data controllers with the UK Information Commissioner's Office.
The SFA funds adult further education and skills training, including Apprenticeships, in England. The YPLA is responsible for arranging the provision of funding for the education and training of young people in England. The SFA processes learner data on behalf of the YPLA.
The information you provide may be shared with other organisations for purposes of administration, the provision of career and other guidance and statistical and research purposes, relating to education or training. Other organisations include the Department for Education, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Local Authorities, Connexions, Higher Education Statistics Agency, Higher Education Funding Council for England, educational institutions and organisations performing research and statistical work on behalf of the SFA, the YPLA, or partners of those organisations.
The SFA also administers the Learning Records Service (LRS) which uses your learner information to create and maintain a unique learner number - please see below.
Further information about use of and access to your information is available at:
SFA: http://skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk/foi.htm
YPLA: http://www.ypla.gov.uk/foi.htm
At no time will your personal information be passed to organisations for marketing or sales purposes. The YPLA, the Chief Executive of the SFA and their partners may wish to contact you from time to time in respect of surveys and research to monitor performance, improve quality and plan future provision and to inform you about courses, or learning opportunities relevant to you.
It is normal practice for the College to share information with parents of those students under 18 years of age.
The College is obliged to provide information to your employer on your attendance and academic progress if they have accepted responsibility for paying your tuition and assessment fees.
Please be aware that signing the enrolment form gives the College consent to hold and use information about you as stated above and specified in the College Data Protection notification, which can be found at www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk. A full statement and further details of the types of data held and for what purpose can be obtained by contacting the College Data Protection Officer.
If you do not wish to give this consent the College may not be able to offer you a place on a course and may withdraw any offer already made.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in our prospectuses and on our website is correct at the time of publication. The College will use reasonable endeavours to deliver programmes and other services in accordance with the descriptions provided. The College, however, reserves the right to make variations to programme contents, fees, entry requirements and methods of delivery and to discontinue or merge or combine programmes, both before and after a student’s admission to the College, if such action is reasonably considered necessary by the College.