Privacy Policy
The School of Systems Engineering
Last updated: 25 August 2026
This policy explains what personal information we collect about you, why we collect it, what we do with it, and what rights you have.
Who we are
The School of Systems Engineering Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 13658138, is a UK training provider. Our registered address is Lavender Cottage, 43 Butts Batch, Wrington, Bristol, England, BS40 5LN.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, registration reference ZC224262.
For most of what is described here we are the data controller, which means we decide what is collected and what happens to it. Where an employer books a course for you, responsibility is shared — see "If your employer booked your course" below.
If you have any questions about this policy, or about your information, email us at info@schoolofsystemsengineering.com.
What we collect and why
We only collect what we need. Here is everything, what we use it for, and the legal reason we are allowed to hold it.
Name and email address
What we use it for: To set up your account, deliver your course, and answer your questions.
Our lawful basis: Performance of our contract with you
Billing address and order details
What we use it for: To take payment, issue receipts, and meet our tax and accounting duties.
Our lawful basis: Contract, and legal obligation
Payment information
What we use it for: Handled directly by Stripe, our payment provider. We do not see or store your card details.
Our lawful basis: Contract
Course progress, assessments and certificates
What we use it for: To deliver your training, mark your work, and issue your certificate.
Our lawful basis: Performance of our contract with you
Employer name and job role
What we use it for: To place you on the right course and to run training booked by an employer.
Our lawful basis: Legitimate interests — delivering the corporate training our client has paid for
Enrolment, attendance and completion reported back to an employer
What we use it for: To fulfil our training contract with the organisation that booked your place.
Our lawful basis: Legitimate interests — delivering the training our client has paid for
Emails and messages you send us
What we use it for: To answer you and keep a record of what was agreed.
Our lawful basis: Contract, and legitimate interests
Newsletter sign-up
What we use it for: To send you course news and offers.
Our lawful basis: Consent
Marketing about similar courses, if you have bought from us
What we use it for: To tell existing customers about our other courses.
Our lawful basis: Legitimate interests, with an opt-out given at purchase and in every email
Website usage data and cookies
What we use it for: To see how the site is used and to advertise our courses. See our Cookie Policy.
Our lawful basis: Consent, except for cookies that are strictly necessary
Technical data such as IP address
What we use it for: To keep the website secure and working properly.
Our lawful basis: Legitimate interests — security
Do you have to give us this information?
There is no legal obligation on you to give us anything. But we cannot set up your account, deliver a course, or issue a certificate without your name and email address, and we cannot take payment without billing details. Everything else on that list is optional.
Where we get it from
Almost always from you directly, when you enrol, fill in a form, email us, or use the website. If your employer books a course for you, we receive your name, work email address and job role from them.
Health and accessibility information
We do not routinely collect special category information — things like health, ethnicity, religion or political views — and we do not ask for it.
There is one exception. If you tell us about a disability or condition so that we can make an adjustment for you, such as extra time on an assessment, we use that information only to arrange the adjustment, share it only with the people who need to make it happen, and delete it once it is no longer needed. We rely on your explicit consent for this, and you can withdraw that consent at any time.
Who we share it with
We do not sell your personal information, and we never have. We do not share it with advertisers, list brokers or data resellers.
We do share it with the companies that help us run the business. They can only use it to do the job we have asked them to do.
Wix
Hosts our website and handles website forms.
Circle (circle.so)
Hosts your account, your course content and your progress.
Stripe
Takes payment and handles refunds.
Google (Analytics and Ads)
Tells us how the site is used, and shows our courses to people who have visited before. Only where you have accepted cookies.
Kit (kit.com)
Sends our newsletter and course emails.
Our accountants and professional advisers
So we can meet our legal, tax and insurance obligations.
Your employer, where they booked your course
Confirming enrolment, attendance and completion. See the section below for what they do not get.
We will also share information if the law requires it — for example a court order, or a request from a regulator we are obliged to answer. If our business is ever sold or merged, your information may transfer to the new owner, who would have to keep to this policy.
If your employer booked your course
A lot of our training is bought by an organisation for its own engineers. If that is how you came to us, here is exactly how it works.
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We receive your name, work email address and job role from your employer, so we can enrol you.
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We tell them that you enrolled, whether you attended, and whether you completed. If the course is assessed, we tell them whether you passed.
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We do not give them your answers, your marks on individual questions, or anything you raise with an instructor in confidence.
Your employer decides who is put forward for training and why. We decide how the course is delivered and how your learning record is kept. Our agreement with your employer sets out who is responsible for what, and their own privacy notice will cover their side of it.
You can ask us at any time for a copy of what we have shared about you.
Cookies
Our website uses cookies. Some are strictly necessary to make the site work and cannot be turned off.The analytics and advertising ones only run if you accept them, and you can change your mind at any time using the cookie settings link in our footer.
Full detail is in our Cookie Policy: https://www.schoolofsystemsengineering.com/cookie-policy
Marketing emails
If you sign up to our newsletter, we email you course news and offers. That runs on your consent, and you can withdraw it whenever you like.
If you have bought a course from us, we may also email you about our other courses, because they are similar to what you already chose. You are given the chance to say no at the point you buy, and every email after that has an unsubscribe link. We act on it straight away.
Emails about a course you have actually bought — joining instructions, materials, your certificate — are part of delivering that course. They are not marketing, and they do not stop if you unsubscribe from the newsletter.
How long we keep it
We keep information only as long as we need it, then delete it or make it anonymous.
Your account and course records
For as long as your account is open. Our courses include continuing access to the material, so we keep your account so that you can use it. You can ask us to close your account and delete your information at any time, and we will.
Certificates and assessment results
Six years after you finish the course. That is the period in which a claim about a contract could be brought, and it means we can still confirm your result if you or an employer ask us years later.
Payment and invoice records
Six years after the end of the tax year they relate to, because HMRC requires it.
Newsletter and marketing contacts
Until you unsubscribe. We also review the list every year and remove anyone who has not opened or clicked in that time.
Enquiries that did not become a booking
12 months. Course decisions often take a few months, especially where an employer is paying, so we keep an enquiry for a year and then delete it.
Accessibility and adjustment information
Only for as long as we need it to make the adjustment, then deleted.
Website analytics
As set out in our Cookie Policy.
Where your information is held
Some of the companies we use are based outside the UK. Between them, our suppliers operate in the United Kingdom, the European Union, Israel and the United States.
Where your information goes outside the UK, we make sure the transfer is protected in one of the ways UK law allows. Either the country has been formally recognised by the UK government as offering equivalent protection, or we have the UK's approved data transfer terms in place with that supplier.
You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards we rely on by emailing info@schoolofsystemsengineering.com.
How we keep it safe
Our website and course platform use encrypted connections. Access to customer information is limited to the people who need it to do their job. Our suppliers are chosen partly on their security arrangements.
No system is perfectly secure, and we will not pretend otherwise. If there is ever a breach that is likely to put people's rights at risk, we will report it to the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours of finding out. If the risk to you personally is high, we will tell you directly and without delay.
Your rights
You can ask us to:
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Give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
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Correct anything that is wrong or out of date.
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Delete your information, where we do not have a reason to keep it.
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Stop or limit how we use it.
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Send it to another organisation in a portable format.
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Stop using it where we rely on our legitimate interests. We then have to stop unless we have a compelling reason to carry on.
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Stop sending you marketing. This one is absolute — if you ask, we stop, every time.
Where we rely on your consent — the newsletter, non-essential cookies, and any adjustment information you have given us — you can withdraw that consent at any time, and it is as easy to withdraw as it was to give.
These requests are free. We will respond within one month. If a request is especially complex, or you have made several at once, we may need up to two further months — we will tell you inside the first month if that happens, and why.
We do not make decisions about you using automated processing alone.
How to complain
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first — email info@schoolofsystemsengineering.com. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and get back to you as quickly as we can.
If you are still not satisfied, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data protection regulator:
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Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
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Helpline: 0303 123 1113
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Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
You can go to the ICO at any time — you do not have to come to us first.
Children
Our courses and this website are intended for adults in professional or career development. We do not offer our services to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
If you are a parent or guardian and you believe your child has given us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.
Other websites
Our site links to other websites we do not control, for example INCOSE or our partners. This policy does not cover them. When you follow a link, have a look at that site's own privacy policy.
Changes to this policy
We update this policy when what we do changes, or when the law changes. The date at the top tells you when it was last updated. If we make a significant change we will say so on the website.
Contact us
Email: info@schoolofsystemsengineering.com
Post: The School of Systems Engineering Ltd, Lavender Cottage, 43 Butts Batch, Wrington, Bristol, England, BS40 5LN