Privacy Policy

PR Academy manages data as required by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and we have worked hard to make sure we are compliant.

This website privacy policy describes how PR Academy Ltd protects and makes use of the information you give us. It covers the following:

pracademy.co.uk /.com

The PR Academy Study Hub

If you are asked to provide information, it will only be used in the ways described in this privacy policy.

Introduction

We gather and use certain information about individuals in order to provide products and services and to enable certain functions on these websites. We also collect information to better understand how visitors use the websites and to present timely, relevant information to them.

What data we gather

We may collect the following information:

  • Name and job title
  • Contact information including email address and optional phone number
  • Demographic information, such as postcode, preferences and interests
  • Website usage data
  • Other information relevant to client enquiries
  • Other information pertaining to special offers and surveys
  • Recent employment history
  • Any special support you need with your studies.

Collecting this data helps us understand what you are looking for from the company, enabling us to deliver improved products and services. We may have to collect it to meet the requirements of the awarding bodies we work with.

Specifically, we may use data:

  • For our own internal records
  • To help ensure you select the course that is right for you and that you meet any eligibility criteria set out by the awarding body
  • To improve the products and services we provide
  • To contact you in response to a specific enquiry
  • To customise the website for you
  • To contact you via email, telephone or mail for market research reasons
  • To ensure we are providing the support you need with your studies.

We use Active Campaign as our database and your information is held here. Only PR Academy admin team members can access it.

If your employer is paying for the course, we collect and hold their name and invoicing address so that we can raise an invoice. We hold the information for future invoicing should they send students to us in the future. This is held in Xero.

CIPR Courses

A bit more detail about Chartered Institute of Public Relation (CIPR) courses:

  • The CIPR asks us to collect data from you and pass it to them so that they can register you as a student, provide you with a student number and set you up on their database to record your result.
  • We collect this data from you at enrolment and pass it to the CIPR via Microsoft Teams.
  • We may collect your employment history to check that you meet the eligibility for the course. We keep this information on your record so that if we are audited by the CIPR we can show that students we enrolled met the entry criteria for the course.
  • If it appears that you do not meet the eligibility criteria set by the CIPR, you can get in touch by phone or email to discuss whether the course is right for you and if so, continue with the enrolment.
  • We keep submitted assignments for about six months after the final CIPR exam board for your course. (The CIPR as the awarding body can always provide your record.)
  • We put all CIPR assignments through Copy Leaks plagiarism software. No names are used, papers are only identifiable by the candidate number. We are obliged to do this by the CIPR.

PR Academy: pracademy.co.uk / com

Enrolment on courses is via the PR Academy website, the site is managed by Brightminded.

We gather information about how people use our PR Academy website. Please see section on Cookies below.

We have a chat facility. We use Fresh Chat. You can request a copy of your chat at the end of the conversation.

If you enquire about a course with us either by email, phone, website or downloading a course brochure, we will keep you updated about our courses under the basis of Legitimate Interest. You can unsubscribe at any time from the link in the footer or by emailing courses@pracademy.co.uk and requesting to be unsubscribed.

If you sign up to our free Introduction to PR course, we will keep you updated about our relevant courses under the basis of Legitimate Interest. You can unsubscribe at any time from the link in the footer or by emailing courses@pracademy.co.uk and requesting to be unsubscribed.

If you opt in to our email newsletter for our free guides, toolkits and insights, we will email you under the basis of Consent. You can unsubscribe at any time from the link in the footer or by emailing courses@pracademy.co.uk and requesting to be unsubscribed.

Study Hub: https://learn.pracademy.co.uk/

The PR Academy Study Hub online learning portal (from July 2022) is operated and hosted by Brightminded.

You retain access to the Study Hub for a period of time after the course completes.

Your course tutor/s and the PR Academy team have access to the Study Hub but this access is restricted according to role.

PR Place Insights

PR Place is our online community and knowledge hub for our students, alumni and practitioners. If you elect to join when you enrol on a course or by signing up to email updates from us, we will send you regular updates by email. These update dates may also contain information about PR Academy courses.

PR Place is free. We set it up to build a community and share thoughtful pieces on PR and communication.

We use Active Campaign to manage our email distribution list. You can opt-out at any time. If you opt-out, we keep a record of that in Active Campaign to ensure we don’t contact you in future. (However, please note that if you are a current or recent past student we may still message you via the online learning centre or email in connection with your studies.)

Cookies and how we use them

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small file placed on your computer’s hard drive. It enables our website to identify your computer as you view different pages on our website.

Cookies allow websites and applications to store your preferences in order to present content, options or functions that are specific to you. They also enable us to see information like how many people use the website and what pages they tend to visit.

How we use cookies

We may use cookies to:

  • Analyse our web traffic using an analytics package. Aggregated usage data helps us improve the website structure, design, content and functions.
  • Identify whether you are signed in to our website. A cookie allows us to check whether you are signed in to the site.
  • Test content on our website. For example, 50% of our users might see one piece of content, the other 50% a different piece of content.
  • Store information about your preferences. The website can then present you with information you will find more relevant and interesting.
  • To recognise when you return to our website. We may show your relevant content, or provide functionality you used previously.
  • Cookies do not provide us with access to your computer or any information about you, other than that which you choose to share with us.

Controlling cookies

You can use your web browser’s cookie settings to determine how our website uses cookies. If you do not want our website to store cookies on your computer or device, you should set your web browser to refuse cookies.

However, please note that doing this may affect how our websites function. Some pages and services may become unavailable to you.

Unless you have changed your browser to refuse cookies, our websites will issue cookies when you visit it.

Controlling information about you

If you have a query or a complaint:

Send an email to: courses@pracademy.co.uk

Write to us at: PR Academy, The Business Terrace, Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, Kent UK, ME15 6JQ

PR Academy Director Ann Pilkington is the point of contact for everything to do with data.

We will never lease, distribute or sell your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or the law requires us to. (Please note point above about information that we pass to the CIPR.)

Any personal information we hold about you is stored and processed under our data protection policy, in line with the Data Protection Act.

Our policy is to hold as little data as possible in as few places as possible and to always ensure that wherever it is held, it is secure. We are fussy about the systems suppliers that we work with because we want to ensure that they take their responsibilities about data seriously too.

To prevent unauthorised disclosure or access to your information, we have implemented strong physical and electronic security safeguards. All our systems are cloud based and password protected. We don’t store any data on hard drives. Our day to day business systems are provided and managed by SADS. http://www.sads.com/

You can contact us to ask what data we hold and also to have your data removed in line with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Links from our site

Our website, the PR Academy Study Hub and our legacy online learning platform may contain links to other websites. Please note that we have no control of websites outside our domains. If you provide information to a website to which we link, we are not responsible for its protection and privacy.

Always be wary when submitting data to websites. Read the site’s data protection and privacy policies fully.

Other things to know

We never write down, collect or keep credit card information. We use Stripe to process payments.

We keep accounting records for as long as required by HMRC – this is usually six years. For example if we send you an invoice or you are the contact for processing payment of an invoice.

If you contact us about a course we will respond to that query and keep in touch proactively for 18 months to see if you still want to study. We know from experience it sometimes takes a long time to get everything organised to join a course. You can let us know at any time if you don’t want to be contacted.

This policy is updated from time to time. The latest version is published on this page.
This website privacy policy was updated on 2 August 2023 to remove reference to the old learning platform.