PRIVACY MATTERS

Your privacy is very important to us.

At Pembrokeshire College we have a few fundamental principles that we follow:

  • We don’t ask you for personal information unless we truly need it.
  • We don’t share your personal information with anyone except to comply with the law, develop our products, or protect our rights.
  • We don’t store personal information on our servers unless required for the on-going operation of our site Pembrokeshire College. We operate several websites including online.pembrokeshire.ac.uk, salon.pembrokeshire.ac.uk and many more. It is Pembrokeshire College’s policy to respect your privacy regarding any information we may collect while operating our websites.
Padlock against bright abstract background.
Woman in front of neon lights at night.

Accessibility Statement

Accessibility statement for Pembrokeshire College

We want everyone who visits Pembrokeshire College’s website to feel welcome and find the experience rewarding.

This accessibility statement applies to content hosted on the sub-domain “www.pembrokeshire.ac.uk”.

This website is run by Pembrokeshire College.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate efficiently through the site using consistent menus or the search features
  • navigate long pages by headings/subheadings using assistive technology tools or plugins
  • listen to most of the website using assistive technologies – for example text to speech tools and plugins, screen readers, and inbuilt phone and/or tablet functionality
  • navigate most of our online forms using just a keyboard
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

My Computer My Way has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible:

  • some header structure and page IDs are not optimised for screen reader use
  • some images lack alternative text and some images are used as links
  • non-accessible pdfs
  • non-optimal image types
  • some video streams do not have captions
  • many of our videos are embedded from YouTube and may feature labelling from YouTube itself, which is incorrect or not sufficiently descriptive

The above items are being reviewed and we are working to reduce these. You can see a full list of any issues we currently know about in the Non-accessible content section of the Compliance status in this statement.

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

Email: marketing@pembrokeshire.ac.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7-10 working days.

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: marketing@pembrokeshire.ac.uk

When contacting us, please provide:

  • Page URL (web page address)
  • Issue encountered (and if on mobile or desktop)
  • Any particular software or assistive technology being used (for example browser, screen reader)

We will aim to respond as quickly as possible and, if applicable, add a fix to our website bug fix schedule.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) (Opens in new window).
Pembrokeshire College is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 (Opens in new window) AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some link text doesn’t make sense when read on its own (for example, ‘click here’), and there are instances where text is difficult to read. This fails WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose. We plan to have update the links by 31 January 2024.
  • Some images do not have a text alternative, or do not correctly identify as decorative. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content. We plan to have fixed these by 31 October 2023. When we publish new content, we will make sure our images meet accessibility standards.
  • There are elements with invalid ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attribute name: aria-role. ARIA attributes must conform to valid names. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. We are investigating ways to solve this by 31 January 2024.
  • Some buttons or form fields don’t provide a text alternative. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content. We are investigating ways to solve this by 31 January 2024.
  • Some of our PDF’s published since 2018 and older documents do not meet the required accessibility standards. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterions 1.3.1 (info and relationships), 1.3.2 (meaningful sequence), 1.4.3 (contrast minimum), 2.4.2 (page titled) and 3.1.1 (error identification). We will be working through these in a priority-ranked order and through staff training. We are planning to have these updated by 31 January 2024.
  • There are links on some pages which appear nested. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. We are investigating ways to solve this by 31 January 2024.
  • Some images duplicate links making the tab order especially long for keyboard users. For example, on the news page. This fails WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose. We are investigating ways to solve this by 31 January 2024.

Disproportionate burden.

At this time, we have not made any disproportionate burden claims.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations.

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. We are currently working on fixing these essential documents or replacing them with accessible html web pages or fully accessible PDFs.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Many of our videos are embedded from YouTube and may feature labelling from YouTube itself, which is incorrect or not sufficiently descriptive. This is third-party content, which we do not pay for, develop or control, so the accessibility regulations do not apply.

We are in the process of developing an accessibility roadmap. Once complete this will be published here.

This statement was prepared on 08 January 2023. This statement was reviewed on 30 July 2023.

This website was last tested on 30 July 2023. The test was carried out by Pembrokeshire College & Mondiso. The testing included manual testing using Chrome with VoiceOver and Accessibility Insights for Web. Mondiso scan the website highlighting possible issues which we then check.

We will review this statement in October 2023.

Hand on mouse under neon lighting.

Website Cookies and Disclaimer

The College makes all reasonable efforts to ensure that the contents this website are accurate and to deliver the programmes of study and research opportunities and other services and facilities in the way described. The College will provide students with the tuition, learning support, other services and facilities it describes with reasonable skill and care. However, the College shall be entitled, if it reasonably considers it to be necessary (including in order to manage its resources and pursue its policy of continuous improvement appropriately):

  • to alter the timetable, location, number of classes and method of delivery of programmes of study, provided such alterations are reasonable;
  • to make reasonable variations to the content and syllabus of programmes of study (including in relation to placements);
  • to suspend or discontinue programmes of study;
  • to make changes to its regulations, policies and procedures which the College reasonably considers necessary;
  • not to provide programmes of study or to combine them with others if the College reasonably considers this to be necessary (for example, because too few students apply to join the programme for it to be viable).

In the unlikely event that the College discontinues or does not provide a programme of study or changes it significantly before it begins:

  • the College will inform relevant individuals as soon as reasonably practical;
  • an individual will be entitled to withdraw his/her application within 14 days of being informed of the change;
  • for those individuals that are either enrolled on a course which is discontinued or withdrawn their application under paragraph two above, the College will make an appropriate refund of tuition fees and deposits paid.

Upon acceptance by an applicant of an offer of a place at the College, the relationship between the applicant and the College becomes contractual. In entering that contract, neither the student nor the College intends that any of the terms of the contract will be enforceable by virtue of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 by any person not a party to it.

The College will not be liable to you for any representations or descriptions on this website, or in any other College documents and publications including social media posts, and/or made to you verbally, unless and to the extent confirmed in the terms as outlined above. The College excludes any liability which it would be unlawful to exclude.

The College will not be liable to you in any manner whatsoever for any failure or delay, or for the consequences of any failure or delay, in performance of any contract with you if it is due to any event beyond our reasonable control including, without limitation, strikes, lockouts or other industrial action or disputes (whether involving our workforce or any other party), acts of God, pandemic, quarantine or wide spread illness (whether affecting our staff and/or student body or otherwise), governmental requisitioning, emergency planning or provision, war, protests, fire, flood, storm, tempest, explosion and suspected or a threatened act of terrorism, riot, civil commotion, national emergencies, breakdown of plant or machinery or default of suppliers or sub-contractors.

The College has a disciplinary procedure policy which is available in the student handbook and on the Intranet. The College reserves the right to withdraw any offer of a place if information becomes available which has not been declared during application.

A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns.

View our current Cookie Policy.

We make every effort to ensure organisations listed on our website, social media and in our publications are legitimate, however we are unable to conduct comprehensive research and verify full details in their entries and cannot guarantee their accuracy.

Throughout our website there are links to websites whose content is outside our control. The inclusion of links on these pages in no way constitutes a recommendation of the services or information provided. Please use your own judgement and be especially wary of any service which asks you to pay!

No responsibility will be taken by Pembrokeshire College for loss or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from the use of services or information provided by the maintainers of these links.

Every effort is made to maintain the accuracy of the information in these pages. However, things change all the time. If you discover any out of date links or you know of other links which should be included on this website, please let us know.

Neon lights on red background spelling Hello.

Privacy

Like most website operators, Pembrokeshire College collects non-personally identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Pembrokeshire College’s purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how Pembrokeshire College’s visitors use its website. From time to time, Pembrokeshire College may release non-personally identifying information in the aggregate, eg. by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.

Pembrokeshire College also collects potentially personally identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for logged in users and for users leaving comments on our blogs. Pembrokeshire College only discloses logged in user and commenter IP addresses under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally identifying information as described below, except that blog commenter IP addresses are visible and disclosed to the administrators of the blog where the comment was left.

Adherence with the Freedom of Information Act is a requirement for all publicly funded bodies like the College. This Act promotes greater openness and accountability across the public sector by requiring all ‘public authorities’ to make information available proactively, through a publication scheme.

A publication scheme describes the information a public authority publishes or intends to publish. Pembrokeshire College has adopted the model publication scheme developed for the Further Education sector available from the Information Commissioners Website.

Most information you require will be found on our website. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, you have the right to request any information held by us which we have not already made available through our publication scheme. However, we are not required to release information to which an exemption in the Act legitimately applies. In such circumstances we will explain to you why we are not releasing information.

Requests for additional information should be made in writing and we will respond within 20 working days. In certain circumstances, where we incur costs up to the appropriate limit (ie £450), we may need to charge a fee, which will be calculated according to fees regulations issued through the Information Commissioner’s Office website. To request information not available through our website or in a different format, please contact: David Evans, Assistant Principal, Pembrokeshire College, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, SA61 1SZ e-mail: d.evans@pembrokeshire.ac.uk

It is important that our publication scheme meets your needs. If you find the scheme difficult to understand, please let us know. We also welcome suggestions as to how our scheme might be improved. Any questions, comments about this scheme should be sent in writing to the contact above.

If we are unable to resolve any complaint, you can complain to the Information Commissioner, the independent body who oversees the Freedom of Information Act: Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

More information about the Freedom of Information Act is available on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

Certain visitors to Pembrokeshire College’s websites choose to interact with Pembrokeshire College in ways that require Pembrokeshire College to gather personally identifying information. The amount and type of information that Pembrokeshire College gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who comment on our blog to provide a username and email address. Those who wish to receive Pembrokeshire College updates via email, we collect their emails. In each case, Pembrokeshire College collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfil the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with Pembrokeshire College.

Pembrokeshire College does not disclose personally identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.

Pembrokeshire College may collect statistics about the behaviour of visitors to its websites. For instance, Pembrokeshire College may monitor the most popular pages on the Pembrokeshire College site. Pembrokeshire College may display this information publicly or provide it to others. However, Pembrokeshire College does not disclose personally identifying information other than as described below.

Pembrokeshire College discloses potentially personally identifying and personally identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors and affiliated organisations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on Pembrokeshire College’s behalf or to provide services available at Pembrokeshire College’s websites, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organisations may be located outside of your home country; by using Pembrokeshire College’s websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them.

Pembrokeshire College will not rent or sell potentially personally identifying and personally identifying information to anyone. Other than to its employees, contractors and affiliated organisations, as described above, Pembrokeshire College discloses potentially personally identifying and personally identifying information only in response to a subpoena, court order or other governmental request, or when Pembrokeshire College believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Pembrokeshire College, third parties or the public at large. If you are a registered user of a Pembrokeshire College website and have supplied your email address, Pembrokeshire College may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on with Pembrokeshire College and our products. We primarily use our various product blogs to communicate this type of information, so we expect to keep this type of email to a minimum. If you send us a request (for example via a support email or via one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users.

Pembrokeshire College takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorised access, use, alteration or destruction of potentially personally identifying and personally identifying information.

Although most changes are likely to be minor, Pembrokeshire College may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in Pembrokeshire College’s sole discretion. Pembrokeshire College encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.