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Privacy Policy

Introduction

At VFS Global Academy, we're committed to protect and respect your privacy.
This Privacy Notice explains how we handle your personal data (also known as personal information in certain jurisdictions).
This Privacy Notice does not intend to conflict with applicable local privacy laws. In case there is a conflict, the applicable local privacy laws will prevail.
We may change this Privacy Notice (also known as Privacy Policy in certain jurisdictions) from time to time. We will always make the latest Privacy Notice available to you via this page. Any changes to this Privacy Notice will apply to you and your data immediately. With respect to the services provided by VFS Global Academy, this Privacy Notice describes:

  • Who are we (VFS Global Academy)?
  • Services provided by VFS Global Academy
  • Data Controllers
  • How do we collect your personal data?
  • The lawful basis for processing your personal data
  • How is your personal data used?
  • How long do we hold your data?
  • Who do we share your personal data with?
  • Transferring your personal data offshore
  • Your rights
  • How VFS Global Academy protects your personal data
  • Monitoring
  • Technology
  • Contact Us
  • Latest Update

Who are we? (VFS Global Academy)

‘VFS Global Academy’ is an initiative of VFS Global Services India Pvt Ltd which provides vocational training and educational programmes to develop skills in sectors such as Hospitality, Travel, and Retail to students, and employees of corporate and government bodies

Services provided by VFS Global Academy

VFS Global Academy offers the following range of services to its customers (students, corporate and govt bodies).

  • Career-oriented courses for individuals
  • Corporate training programmes
  • Pre-Departure Orientation Training (PDOT)
  • Placement support and internships

For students - We provide certification programmes in affiliation with National Skill Development Corporation of India (NSDC) along with corporate internship program.
For Corporate Employees – We provide trainer led certification programmes.
For Employees of Government bodies – We only provide trainer led trainings.
Please note that our services through VFS Global Academy may vary from country to country. The services are completely independent of your visa/ permit or travel document application procedure and might be purchased as per your needs.

Data Controllers

VFS Global Academy will be a responsible party for the use of your personal data you provide while availing our services. We will process your personal data for providing services related to vocational training and educational programmes including but not limited to:- i) career counselling services, iii) assist in identifying and applying for appropriate internship programmes most suitable as per your career goals, iv) to issue certificates to you for attending corporate training programmes, v) support related to your learning experience.
This role is known as “Data Controller” as established in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) and other applicable privacy laws. However, it can have different names such as “Organisation,” “Data Fiduciary,” “Responsible Party”, “Data Handler”, or similar, depending on your country of residence.

How do we collect your personal data?

VFS Global Academy collects personal data about you when you request for our services in following cases:
a. When processing your Educational Application as a student
As a student when you reach out to us and opt for services related to vocational training and educational programmes (collectively referred as “Educational Application”). VFS Global Academy will collect following information to advise you on services related to your Educational Application.
Mandatorily required

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Email address
  • Mobile Phone Number
  • Date of Birth
  • Educational Qualification (for assessing your eligibility for university and internship programmes)

Optional but may be made mandatory upon opting for vocational training and educational programmes

  • Residential Address
  • National Identity No.
  • Passport No.
  • Educational Qualification Certificates 

For Internship Program :- Depending on the country you applied the personal data required from you for providing services related to Educational Application may change, but it is always determined by Corporates entities which determines the purpose of the processing of the personal data that, is to be collected, used, and transferred by VFS Global Academy as part of providing serviced pertaining to your Educational Application process. 

b. When conducting Corporate Trainings
We receive your personal details from your employer as nominated learner for the training that we provide basis requirements of your Employer. We only process following personal data to issue certificate of attendance to you.
  • First Name
  • Last Name

c. When conducting training for Government Bodies
We do not process any personal data while providing training to employees of government bodies.

d. Children’s privacy protection
Our services are not designed for, or intentionally targeted at, children. When we process data from children, we will require parental or guardian consent.

Lawful basis for processing your personal data

We collect and process your personal data in accordance with the applicable data protection laws.
a. For Processing your Educational Application:
The lawful basis for processing your personal data is your consent. By providing your personal information, you are giving us explicit consent to process it for the purpose of delivering services related to your Educational Application. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, which will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. If you wish to withdraw consent, please contact us using the details provided in the "Contact Us" section of this privacy notice.

b. For processing your data as employee of corporate entity:
The lawful basis for processing your personal data is contractual obligation.

How is your personal data used? 

a. To process your Educational Application 
The information collected by VFS Global Academy from you at the time of opting for our services is processed by us for assessing your candidature for vocational training and educational programmes based on your Educational Application.
VFS Academy has tie ups with Corporate entities to provide you with best vocational training and educational programmes. Therefore, we will also submit your personal data in form of application to corporate entities to secure your candidature for internship program. However, please note that we do not take any part in the decision-making process for grant or refusal of your candidature for vocational training as part of your Educational Application process.
This assessment is carried out at the sole discretion of Corporate entities responsible for providing vocational training as a Data Controller (in respect of any personal data processed in connection with this process), which reserves the right to ask for further documentation and information for grant or refusal of your candidature for vocational training as part of your Educational Application process. You must provide such further documentation and information if you wish to proceed with the application.

b. To issue certificates to employees of corporate bodies
While conducting training organized by your employer, we will process your personal data to issue a certificate of attendance / completion of training to you.

How long do we hold your data?

For sending you information about our courses and latest news, we will retain your personal data for two (2) years and for maintaining our records related to learners opted for our vocational trainings and educational programmes we retain your personal data for five (5) years.

Who do we share your personal data with? 

a. When processing your Educational Application
We share your personal data with our corporate partners to facilitate internship opportunities as part of the services related to your Educational Application.

b. When delivering Corporate Trainings to Corporate entities and Government Bodies
We do not share your personal data with any third parties.

c. Our suppliers and partners
We may share or disclose your contact information with our suppliers and partners where it is necessary for the processing of your requests or to deliver an additional service that you have requested. For example, if you have asked us to deliver your documents/certificate to your home or preferred address, we will need to provide the courier company with your name, delivery address, and a contact phone number.

We only use suppliers and partners that have sufficient privacy and data protection measures in place.

Transferring your personal data offshore

Your data shared with VFS Global Academy will be stored in India. However, depending on the country where you use our services, we may transfer your data offshore. In such cases, we implement appropriate privacy and data protection measures.

For data shared with our corporate partners, their respective privacy policy will be applicable.

Your rights

a. Data Subjects rights in relation to the processing of your Educational Application by our partners.
We work and partner with Universities, Educational Institutes, Corporate entities and other third parties to provide you with the best possible options that would align with your career goals and Educational Application Process. During this process We will share your personal data on the basis of your consent with our partners for which respective entities will act as controllers for the processing done by them for processing your candidature. In such cases, the privacy policy of the respective organization will be applicable while processing your personal data as VFS Academy plays no role on how they decide to process your personal data. If you require this information, you need to directly contact the Data Controller i.e. the respective organization that you have applied to as a part of your Educational Application process.

b. Data Subjects rights in relation to your Educational Application provided to you by VFS Global Academy
Under many data protection laws, you have rights with regard to how your personal data is handled. These privacy rights vary from country to country; however, in VFS Global Academy, we enable you, subject to all relevant laws, to exercise a full range of data protection rights depending on the applicable jurisdiction. It includes, among others:

  • The right to be informed how your personal data is being used.
  • The right of access and a copy of your personal data.
  • The right to rectification if your personal data is incorrect.
  • The right to erasure of your personal data.
  • The right to restrict the processing of your personal data.
  • The right to nominate
  • The right to data portability.
  • The right to object to how your personal data is used.
  • Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.
  • Registering a concern about data privacy / grievance redressal.
  • Requesting a copy of your personal data, correcting inaccurate personal data, and deletion of personal data.
You can exercise your rights by contacting VFS Global Academy at:



c. Accessing your information: Authentication
In order to protect your privacy and to authenticate that the request is genuinely from you and not from anyone else masquerading as you, we might request some additional details of your last interaction with VFS Global Academy, some details that nobody else would know about.
This is to ensure that it is really you who is making the request and not someone else. We will only request enough information to enable us to identify you properly.

How VFS Global Academy protects your personal data?

We are committed to protecting all personal data that we hold about you. When you give us personal data, we take steps to ensure that it is safeguarded and held securely. Any sensitive information is encrypted and protected.
On our website, when you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear in the address bar of most web browsers. This means the transfer of information from your browser to our web servers is encrypted to keep it safe.
Please bear in mind that emails may be transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, please do not include personal data in an email when you communicate with us. If you do, you do so at your own risk.

Monitoring

Please note that at VFS Global Academy’s premises, to have appropriate security measures in place, you will find that VFS Global uses CCTV systems where the law permits so.

The required CCTV signs are deployed in our offices and visit centers and indicate that you are being recorded. This CCTV footage is kept for a certain period of time in line with our requirements and applicable local laws.

Technology

Use of cookies
Like many other websites, the VFS Global Academy websites use Cookies. 'Cookies' are small pieces of information sent by an organization to your browser and stored on your device. We use them is to help collect statistical information about your browsing actions and patterns. Other uses are to set your preferred language and tell your browser what pages you have already visited so that you can use the "Back" function. Cookies help us to improve our websites and deliver a more personalized service.

We provide the choice for you to accept or refuse the use of cookies when you visit our websites, and you can change the cookie settings at any time.

Please note that disabling cookies may result in a loss of functionality when using our website. For more detailed information about how VFS Global Academy uses cookies, please see our cookies disclosure notice.

Questions, complaints, and contact details

We are committed to protecting your privacy. If you wish to contact us or if you have any questions or wish to lodge a complaint about our privacy practices or the way we have handled your personal data, including if you believe that there has been a possible breach of any relevant privacy principles, you may contact us at:

1. Educational Application: by contacting our registrations@vfsglobalacademy.com.

2. Information relating to data protection and privacy practices: by completing and submitting our SAR form (Privacy Request Form) or by contacting dpo@vfsglobal.com

3. In case you remain dissatisfied, you can raise complaints on the processing of personal data: by contacting the supervisory data protection authority available in your country.

For any complaint, please include details about your complaint. On receipt of a complaint, we will endeavour to carry out any necessary investigations in a timely manner. We will respond to all complaints within a reasonable time, or such earlier time as required by law. 

Latest Update

This Privacy Policy was last updated in February 2025.