SkillsDMC respects individual privacy and is committed to the protection of any information that is shared with us. We collect Personal Information* that is used for our own database.
Personal information collected by SkillsDMC is for internal use only and will not be disseminated to any external individual or organisation. The cumulative data, together with information on number of site visits, downloads and pages visited is analysed at the end of each month to determine the site's usage statistics.
Once site visitors have clicked onto a linked site, they will leave the SkillsDMC site and are no longer covered by the SkillsDMC Privacy Policy.
Any individual has the right to access Personal Information about them held by SkillsDMC (subject to the exceptions prescribed by the National Privacy Principles). Any request for such information will be answered in writing within 14 days. The request should be addressed to Privacy Officer, SkillsDMC, Level 7, 36 Carrington Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia.
Under its obligations to the resources and infrastructure industries, SkillsDMC collects and publishes national industry demographics about the resources and infrastructure sectors, intended to ensure that our industry sectors have access to timely, reliable, statistical data. SkillsDMC has a set of agreed protocols to ensure confidentiality of such data.
* Personal Information collected at SkillsDMC may include name, title, company, position and contact details.
Protocols for the Collection and Reporting of Statistical Information
Under its obligations to the resources and infrastructure industries, SkillsDMC is responsible for the collection, analysis and reporting of demographic information about the resources and infrastructure industries in Australia. In fulfilling these obligations, SkillsDMC adheres to the following principles:
- to continually improve the quality of information gathered
- to observe the highest professional standards
- to protect the privacy of individuals and suppliers of information
- to disseminate data to aid better decision making within our sectors
- to develop cost effective collection processes
- to uphold the credibility and independence of SkillsDMC
SkillsDMC staff is bound by protocols covering the privacy and confidentiality of data, and the release of information. On appointment, staff members are required to sign an undertaking which gives effect to these protocols.
The privacy and confidentiality protocols are:
- The purpose of these protocols is to allow statistical analysis to be undertaken using SkillsDMC data holdings in a way which protects the privacy of persons and organisations about whom information is held.
- Information about persons and organisations is held in SkillsDMC data holdings at unit-record level. It is necessary to collect the data at this level so that it can be disaggregated in different ways to meet the needs of our industry sectors
- Access to SkillsDMC data holdings at unit record level is restricted to staff and contractors of SkillsDMC via a secure computer server. Staff and contractors are also required to sign an undertaking regarding appropriate usage of data.
- No external users are granted access to SkillsDMC data holdings at unit record level.
- SkillsDMC data holdings do not contain the names or addresses of persons.
- SkillsDMC will not release or publish any information which identifies an individual person or an individual employer, or which allows such an identification to be made. In order to meet this requirement it may be necessary to:
- confidentialise small numbers in tables, for example, by showing figures of three or less as an asterisk
- confidentialise any unit record files provided for external users, for example by using coarser classifications on potentially identifying variables like age or employment size
With regard to the release of information, the key objective here is to aid better policy making and practice in our industry sectors and promote more informed choices on the part of employers. In principle the agglomerated data should be fully accessible to all users, and information provided in a way that suits a variety of user needs, so long as access is consistent with the privacy and confidentiality protocols.
- In its publications SkillsDMC will ensure appropriate clarification, explanations and caveats are included to promote understanding and interpretation.
- SkillsDMC information may, at times, be consolidated with other statistical data to ensure a more valid and complete picture is available for our industry sectors. This may involve information from, inter alia, ABS, ABARE, Monash, NCVER. An example of this is the Industry Skills Report, prepared in conjunction with DEST.