Terms & Conditions


Citizens Advice Applicant Tracking System (Jobtrain) - our privacy policy

Citizens Advice use an applicant tracking system (ATS) called Jobtrain to advertise roles and receive applications.

We get your information:

  • when you register for job alerts
  • when you apply for a role
  • when an agency submits an application on your behalf

  • Processing of your personal information is necessary to let us carry out our recruitment activities and measure the success of our Inclusive Employer ambitions. We have a ‘legitimate interest’ to do this under data protection law.

    What information we ask for and why

    When you sign up for job alerts or apply for a role at Citizens Advice via Jobtrain we will ask you for personal information including:

  • Your name
  • Address
  • Email address
  • Contact number
  • Date of birth
  • Any personal data you have chosen to include on your CV and covering letter

  • We will also ask you to complete an Inclusion Monitoring form. This allows us to monitor our various people processes to ensure we are meeting our Inclusive Employer goals, and enables us to appropriately focus our recruitment activities on those areas where we might not be fully inclusive. Data collected on this form includes:

  • Race and Ethnicity
  • Religion/Faith/Belief
  • Sex
  • Disability as described in the Equalities Act 2010
  • Sexual orientation

  • This type of information is known as ‘special category data’. You may withdraw your consent to us storing this data at any time. Tell us the personal information you don’t want us to store by emailing Careers@citizensadvice.org.uk and we’ll delete it.

    Completion of the inclusion monitoring form is not mandatory and there is no obligation to provide this information if you would prefer not to.

    If an agency submits an application via Jobtrain on your behalf, they will provide the following information about you:

  • Your postcode
  • Any personal data you have chosen to include on your CV and covering letter

  • If you are invited for an interview you will be asked to provide an original document to prove your right to work in the UK. By law we must have seen and taken a copy of this before you can commence employment. A copy will be made by the hiring manager who will then -

  • store the copy confidentially in your electronic employee record file if you commence employment at Citizens Advice
  • destroy the copy confidentially if you are unsuccessful

  • How we use your information

    The main reasons we ask for your personal information is to:

  • assess your suitability for the role you have applied for
  • to contact you to let you know the outcome of your application
  • arrange an interview
  • send job alerts based on your preferences
  • issue an offer letter and/or contract

  • and we'll only get access to your information for other reasons if we need to - for example:

  • to investigate complaints
  • to fulfil Subject Access Requests
  • to get feedback from you about our services
  • to help us improve our services

  • Any special category data you have chosen to provide will be treated as strictly confidential and will only ever be used at an aggregate level. It will not form part of the recruitment assessment or selection process.

    There is an exception to the treatment of special category data being used for selection and assessment for the question regarding the 'Guaranteed Interview Scheme' for people with disabilities. In this case, the hiring manager and the recruitment team will see an indicator on your application that you have applied under this scheme. They will treat this information as strictly confidential and they will not have access to any other special category data.

    Sharing your information

    If you accept an offer of employment:

  • we will seek your permission to contact your chosen referees as part of the pre-employment checks.
  • we will share your contact information with our occupational health provider - Health Management - as part of the onboarding process. We have a contract with health management and assurance that your data is stored securely in accordance with data protection laws. We will not routinely share your personal data with any other third parties in a way that could identify you but there may be rare circumstances such as safeguarding concerns or requests from the police when sharing may be necessary. Or when we are obliged by law to share , for example, in response to a court order.

  • From time to time, we may share anonymous aggregated sets of data with trusted external organisations for the purposes of statistical analysis.

    Storing your information

    Your information is stored securely within the Jobtrain ATS. Citizens Advice have a contract with Jobtrain and assurance that your data is stored securely in accordance with data protection laws.

    All staff who have access to your data have data protection training to make sure your information is handled sensitively and securely.

    The recruitment team or hiring manager may use the contact information you provide on your application to contact you at any point during the application or onboarding process.

    We’ll only store your information for 12 months after you’ve made an application unless you choose to delete your jobtrain account earlier.

    Contact us about your information

    You can contact us at any time and ask us:

  • what information we’ve stored about you
  • to change or update your information
  • to delete your information from our records or withdraw your consent
  • stop using your information

  • It is also possible to carry out the following tasks by logging into your Jobtrain account:

  • update or delete your information
  • withdraw an application
  • If you want to make a complaint

  • If you're not happy with how we've handled your data, you can make a complaint by emailing Careers@citizensadvice.org.uk

    You can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/for-the-public to raise a concern about how we’ve used your information.

    Review of this Policy - December 2019