User terms and conditions

Introduction

Use of the website and services available at www.apprenticeships.scot (the 'Site') and the services provided via third parties on the Site are conditional upon you accepting the following terms and conditions including our Privacy policy and Cookies policy (the 'Terms and Conditions'). Unless otherwise specified, your acceptance of the Terms and Conditions shall be indicated by your use of and/or registration with the Site. If you do not agree to the Terms and Conditions, you must not use our site.

The Site is provided by The Skills Development Scotland Co Limited, a company registered in Scotland with company number SC202659 and having its registered office at Monteith House, 11 George Square, Glasgow G2 1DY ('we', 'our' or 'us').

These Terms and Conditions form our entire agreement with you (the 'User Agreement') in respect of use of the Site and supersede any prior agreement or arrangement with you in respect of the Site. Unless the context otherwise requires, references to 'you' and 'your' in these Terms and Conditions relate to you.

Any breach of the Terms and Conditions may, at our sole discretion, result in your rights to access the Site being suspended or removed.

Availability of the Site

We will endeavour to ensure that the Site is available 24 hours per day without any interruptions. However, we reserve the right to make the Site unavailable at any time or to restrict access to parts or all of the Site, in line with operational requirements.

Use of the Site

The Site is designed for your personal, non-commercial use and you must not use it in any other way without our consent. You must not use, copy, translate, publish, license or sell the Site or any materials or information in the Site or the structure, overall style and program code of the Site without our consent except as permitted under applicable law. If you wish to make a request for consent, please contact us.

Intellectual property

The content of the Site (including, but not limited to all text, imagery and artwork) is protected by copyright. The copyright is owned by us or is otherwise licensed from a third party for use by us. The Site contains registered and unregistered trademarks which we either own or are licensed to use. The authors of the documents appearing on the Site assert their moral rights. www.apprenticeships.scot is a registered domain name of Skills Development Scotland.

You may view or download any part of the Site for private purposes (including but not limited to the purposes of seeking information on and/or applying for apprenticeships), but you are not permitted, without our permission, to:

• store the Site, or any part of the Site, for any other purpose

• print copies of the Site, or any part of the Site, for any other purpose

• reproduce, copy or transmit the Site, or any part of the Site, in any way, for any other purpose or in any other medium.

All other rights which are not specifically granted are reserved.

User conduct

You must not:

• use the Site for any purpose which is unlawful, or which may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to any person including but not limited to making available defamatory material

• use the Site to transmit, distribute or make available any information which contravenes any applicable law or any person's legal rights including but not limited to copyright, trademark, privacy or other personal or proprietary rights. You agree to indemnify us against all claims, proceedings, damages, liabilities and costs, including legal costs arising out of your breach of this term.

Third party websites and consent

The Site includes links to other internet sites, and hosts functionality developed and made available by third parties.

The Site includes information and content that relate to apprenticeships opportunities posted by third party employers. This content is sometimes submitted to our Site by employers posting opportunities onto third parties and/or their websites - for example, the Department of Work and Pensions ('DWP') or 'My Job Scotland' which is managed by COSLA.

The Site may also include functionality that allows you to publish your information from the Site onto third party websites. We do not control those websites, we make no representations or warranties about those websites, third parties or their content and we accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. If you are linking any of your content from the Site to be published on a third party website please be aware that in doing so you will be required to comply with the user terms of that third party and that the privacy of your information will be treated in accordance with the privacy policy of that third party.

Linking to the Site

If you wish to link to the Site you may only do so at www.apprenticeships.scot.

Details of our linking arrangements may be obtained by contacting us at ma@sds.co.uk.

Data Protection

It is your responsibility to ensure that that you give us an accurate and valid email address and other contact details, and to inform us of any changes. We comply with the applicable provisions of the Data Protection legislation in the UK, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR. For a description of how we use your personal data, please see our Privacy policy and Cookies policy.

Freedom of information

Skills Development Scotland is subject to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 which provides a general right of access to information held by Scottish Public Authorities.

If you would like to make a Freedom of Information request, please contact foi@sds.co.uk.

For more information, please contact us on 0141 285 6000 or by email at ma@sds.co.uk.

Our liability

Since a substantial part of the Site is both free and available to all, it is a condition that your use of the Site is at your own risk. We shall not be liable to you or in breach of this User Agreement for any delay or failure to perform any obligation if the delay or failure is due to a cause beyond our reasonable control including, without limitation, the blocking or restricting of information to and/or from our network.

The Site and its contents are for general information only and are provided 'as is' and on an 'as available' basis. Accordingly, to the maximum extent permitted by law, we exclude all representations, warranties, conditions and other terms. Specifically, we are not responsible for the legality, appropriateness or otherwise of the content of any advertisements, listings, postings or opportunities published by any employer or other third party that may appear on, or be linked to by, the Site; and we make no warranties, representations or undertakings about:

• the content of the Site (including, without limitation, any warranties or assurances as to the quality, accuracy, currency, completeness or fitness for any particular purpose of such content); or

• the content of any other third party website or service referred to or accessed through the Site. For example, if an employer has included content in any advertisement of an apprenticeship role that is in breach of employment, race relations or equalities laws, we will not be responsible for that (although we will remove it if we can, or where that is difficult for technical reasons, we will ask for that content to be removed).

• advertising a vacancy under the Disability Confident scheme: if the employer is a Disability Confident employer then candidates who identify themselves as disabled and meet the minimum requirements specified in the vacancy will get an interview. The employer is responsible for honouring this agreement.

• applicant data, including claims of eligibility to work in the UK.

We make reasonable efforts to ensure that the Site is free from so-called computer viruses, however, it is strongly recommended that you check for such viruses before downloading any content.

We accept no liability for any claims, penalties, loss, damage or expenses arising from: any reliance placed on the content of the Site; the use or inability to use the Site; the downloading of any materials from the Site; or any unauthorised access to or alteration to the Site. This section shall not exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or for any other matter that cannot be lawfully limited or excluded by law.

User content

This section shall apply to the extent that the Site may give you the option to send us content to be posted on the Site by us ('User Content').

By sending us User Content, you will be deemed to:

i. Warrant to us that all registration information you submit, including age verification information if you are under 16, is truthful and accurate

ii. Consent to us editing that User Content at our discretion

iii. Grant to us an irrevocable, worldwide, royalty free licence to use and publish that User Content for any purpose associated with our general objective, to make skills work for employers, which includes without limitation, a right to publish any vacancy information you have provided as part of your User Content, on the Site and/or any other social media and/or email subscription job alert schemes used by us from time to time, which shall be subject to the applicable terms and conditions for each such forum/scheme

iv. Irrevocably waive in our favour any moral rights you may have in such User Content in terms of Chapter IV Part I of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and any similar rights available in any part of the world

v. Warrant to us that you are the owner of the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the User Content, that the User Content is your original work and that the User Content does not infringe the rights (including intellectual property rights) of any third party.

We do not guarantee that any User Content you submit will be posted on the Site.

Please note that comments made by other users of the Site which may be posted on the Site are provided for your information only and do not necessarily represent our views and opinions.

vi. You must not misuse the Site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful, or otherwise harmfully interacting with the Site or any part of it. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Site, the server on which the Site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to the Site or any other equipment or network connected with the Site. You must not interfere with, damage or disrupt any software used in the provision of the Site or any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party on which the Site relies in any way. You must not attack the Site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use the Site will cease immediately.

Takedown Notice policy

In the event that you consider your rights to have been infringed by another user's conduct it is our intention to respond to all clear notices of copyright infringement, defamatory content or otherwise via the Takedown Notice policy set out in this section.

If you believe that your own copyrighted work is accessible on the Site in violation of your copyright or that obscene or defamatory comments have been made in relation to you, then you may submit a notice requesting that we remove the applicable content (a 'Takedown Notice'). You must include the following information within the Takedown Notice:

• identify, in sufficient detail, the copyrighted work or intellectual property that you claim has been infringed so that the material can be located on the Site; alternatively please provide sufficient details to locate the allegedly obscene or defamatory comment

• the physical or electronic signature of the person making the complaint

• sufficient contact details for the person making the complaint, including an address, telephone number and e-mail address

The Takedown Notice should be submitted to us at ma@sds.co.uk.

Upon receipt of a Takedown Notice we shall remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing material if we consider it appropriate to do so. We may also advise the alleged infringer of your claim.

In the event that a Takedown Notice is received in connection with any content which you have posted or made available on the Site, you consent to the release of your personal contact details in connection with any investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy, defamation or other unlawful activity. Such personal information will only be released to the complainant where required by law. In such circumstances we may, if we are required to do so, disclose your name, home address and e-mail address to the complainant or the complainant's representatives.

Please note that some of the content on the Site is made available by third parties. In particular, content is submitted to our Site by employers who can link to opportunities on the websites of third parties and/or their own websites. If we receive a Takedown Notice in respect of any content that originates from an employer, our ability to take it down is limited and we will instead pass on your complaint to the employer and/or any third party website.

Password protected areas

The Site contains password protected areas which allow you to view certain selected content. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and user name and are fully responsible for all activities occurring under your username or password.

When selecting your privacy settings please consider carefully the number of people who may be able to view the information you post and whether it is safe to disclose that type of information. We recommend that you do not disclose your home address, telephone number, date of birth or work, place of study or school location in a way that could be publicly accessed.

While the Site allows you to set privacy options that limit access to your pages, please be aware that no security measures are one hundred percent effective. Accordingly we cannot control the actions of other users with whom you choose to share your pages and information and do not guarantee that User Content you post on the Site will not be viewed by unauthorised persons. We are not responsible for the circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site.

Small print

We may terminate this User Agreement at any time. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under the contract. You may not transfer any of your rights or delegate any of your obligations under this User Agreement without our prior written consent.

If we fail to enforce any provision of this User Agreement, that failure will not preclude us from enforcing either that provision (or any similar provision) on a later occasion. Nothing in this User Agreement shall confer on any third party any benefit or the right to enforce any term of the User Agreement. This User Agreement is governed by Scottish law and any dispute connected with this agreement is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish courts. Nothing in this User Agreement affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

We reserve the right to amend or replace the Terms and Conditions at any time. If we make any substantial changes we will notify you by posting a prominent notice on the Site.

Deletion of account

If you delete your account, then your personal information will be deleted and any remaining information made anonymous. We use anonymous information to help us improve our services.

To delete your account, navigate to the Account Information area of your Dashboard, and select the 'Delete account' tab.

If you have used other SDS services in the past, such as speaking to an SDS Careers Adviser, a member of the SDS PACE Team or have engaged in one of SDS’ programmes (for example Foundation, Modern or Graduate Apprenticeships), SDS may still hold personal information relating to you on our systems in relation to those services, and deleting your account on the Site will not delete this other information.

You can contact the SDS Data Protection Team at DPO@sds.co.uk if you have a request in relation to any other personal information we may hold on you.

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with the Site, in the first instance please contact us online using our Customer Complaints Form.