Privacy & terms of use
A summary of how the Polytechnic Talent Portal handles your information.
What we store
Your name, email, profile details, an optional profile photo, skills, achievements, uploaded evidence and CV, CLP records entered by the Polytechnic, applications you submit and payments made through the portal.
Who can see your profile
You choose who can see your profile: approved employers, Polytechnic staff, or everyone. Everyone means anyone, even without an account. Approved employers also see your contact details and CV. Polytechnic staff with a staff account see a short card: your name, photo, programme, school, student number, skills and the achievements you show, and can endorse you. With none chosen, only you and administrators see your profile. Applying to an opportunity shares your full profile, contact details and CV with that employer.
Profile photos
Students, graduates and Polytechnic staff may add a profile photo; it is optional, and initials are shown without one. Before a photo is stored, its hidden details, such as the camera and the place it was taken, are removed. A student's photo is shown with the profile, to exactly the people who can see that profile, and in the student's own account menu. A staff member's photo is shown only to them and to administrators. Administrators can remove an unsuitable photo, and changing an account's role removes its photo; you can replace or remove yours at any time, and a removed photo is deleted.
Verification
You choose which achievements appear on your profile; one you show appears whatever its verification status, and only a verified one carries the Verified badge. Employers who can see your profile can open the evidence file of an achievement you show. To have an achievement verified, you ask a tutor or member of Polytechnic staff who has a staff account; they see your name, programme, sign-in email address and student number, the achievement and its evidence file, and decide whether to verify it. Their name and email are kept with the verification for administrators and shown to you; your profile shows only "Verified by Polytechnic staff" and their school. Editing a verified achievement removes the verification (it returns to Not verified). An achievement made from a project completed through the portal is marked as verified by the client who received the work, with their permission; it cannot be edited in place, and you can remove it at any time. Please report any inaccurate verified record to the portal administrator.
Project evaluations
When a project through the portal ends, the employer and the student may each send a short private evaluation of the other. The employer's scores and feedback go to the student (once both have sent theirs, or after the 14-day window) and to university administrators; its private note is for administrators. The student's evaluation of the employer is read only by university administrators and is never shown to the employer. On a cancelled project both are for administrators only. Evaluations never appear on a profile, card or search result. They are kept as long as the project record and may be shared where the law requires, for example when someone asks for the personal data held about them.
Endorsements
Companies you worked with through the portal and Polytechnic tutors and staff can write a short endorsement of you: their name, their job title (and, for a company, its name; for a tutor, their school), the relationship, an optional context, the text and up to three of your skills. A tutor's staff email address is kept with the endorsement for administrators and never shown on your profile. Every endorsement is hidden until you choose to show it, and you can hide or delete it at any time from your Endorsements page; a shown endorsement can be read by everyone who can open your profile. If you let Polytechnic staff see your profile, a tutor or member of staff can find you on their Students page and endorse you without being asked; you can stop any one of them from endorsing you again. A tutor or member of staff you ask sees your name, programme, sign-in email address and student number, your message and the names of your skills. A company sees, on its Endorsements page, the names and programmes of the students it has worked with through the portal (a CLP placement included, also when a profile is private), and your skills in its endorsement form only when it can already open your profile.
Files and security
Evidence, CVs and profile photos are stored in a private bucket. Evidence and CVs are only accessible through short-lived links issued to authorised viewers; a photo is sent only after checking, each time, that the viewer may see it. All access to data is checked on the server and significant actions are recorded in an audit log.
Payments
Payments for freelance and project work are processed by a third-party payment gateway. The portal never stores card details. A platform fee may be retained before funds are released to the student.
Your rights
You can update or delete your achievements at any time and may request account deletion from the portal administrator. Financial records of payments made through the portal are retained to meet institutional and legal record-keeping requirements.