Wales Essential Skills Toolkit Survey 2024: privacy notice

The Wales Essential Skills Toolkit (WEST) was launched in 2014.  Welsh Government policy was issued requiring all post-16 learners undertaking Welsh Government provision to have their Essential Skills levels assessed via the Essential Skills Full Initial Diagnostic Assessments through WEST.

Welsh Government is now reviewing this policy and its continued procurement of the WEST platform.  Welsh Government is gathering information via a survey from training providers and users of WEST to understand how WEST is used, what value it adds, and any views on its continued use. 

The Welsh Government is the data controller.  

Your participation in this research is voluntary. However, your participation is important to help inform Welsh Government policies. The Welsh Government may send reminders via email or telephone but if you do not wish to take part or be sent reminders then please reply to the email that invited you to complete the survey. 

Personal data is defined under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified by reference to an identifier’. 

Welsh Government holds the contact details (name, e-mail address and telephone number) of its contracted training providers. Welsh Government is contacting you to request your participation in our survey via the contact details it holds.  

We do not require any additional personal data in the survey, and you are asked to complete the survey anonymously. We do however ask what type of learning you provide, and what your role is relating to WEST so that we can understand the context of your answer.  If you would like to be involved in further research we ask that you provide your contact details (name, email address, telephone) again so that we are able to contact you.

If you do not wish to take part or be sent reminders, then please reply to the invitation email and you will not be contacted again for this research project.  

If you raise a query or complaint and provide personal data requesting a response, the researcher will forward to Welsh Government to reply. 

The lawful basis for processing information in this research is our public task; that is, exercising our official authority to undertake the core role and functions of the Welsh Government.  As the person responding to the survey on behalf of your training provider, your personal information will not be included in any publication as part of this research. 

Participation is voluntary. Research studies such as this are important for the Welsh Government to collect information and actionable evidence about its ability to deliver government priorities. The information collected in this research will be used to: 

• Understand how the Wales Essential Skills Toolkit is being used, and what value it adds
• Inform a review of the policy associated with essential skills testing
• Inform procurement and funding decisions linked to the Wales Essential Skills Toolkit.

Personal data provided to Welsh Government is held on secure servers. A copy of your personal data (contact details) has been made for this research and will be stored in a restricted folder that can only be accessed by a limited number of officials.   

The officials will not provide any personal information when reporting findings. 

When conducting surveys, the Welsh Government use a survey software programme called Smart Survey. We have ensured that Smart Survey is UK GDPR compliant and meets our expectations in terms of the security of any data collected via the software. 

The Employability & Skills Strategic Engagement team will use the information gathered to inform policy development and procurement.

If we obtained your personal data from the contracting teams in the Welsh Government, your contact details will continue to be held by them for the purposes of engaging with you as part of their role as contract managers.  

If we obtained your contact details for this research through our initial contact in your organisation and/or through the survey, then this will be held for this research and deleted within 24 months after the completion of the project. 

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to the personal information you provide as part of this research, specifically you have the right: 

• To access a copy of your own data;  
• For us to rectify inaccuracies in that data; 
• To object to or restrict processing (in certain circumstances); 
• For your data to be ‘erased’ (in certain circumstances); and 
• To lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is our independent regulator for data protection. 

The contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office are: 

If you have any further questions about how the data provided as part of this study will be used by the Welsh Government or wish to exercise your rights using the UK General Data Protection Regulation, please contact: 

The Welsh Government’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted at: