Safeguarding learners under eighteen
Our programmes are designed for adults. If you are under eighteen, or you are a parent considering this for your child, this page says exactly how it works, and what we will and will not do.
Enrolling someone under eighteen
- Written consent from a parent or guardian is required before we enrol anyone under eighteen, and before we process any of their personal data. Cameroonian data protection law requires it and we will not work around it.
- The parent or guardian is a party to the conversation, not a signature on a form. We speak to them before enrolment and at the halfway checkpoint.
- We collect no sensitive data about a minor at all. Health, biometric and similar data about an under-18 would require prior authorisation from the Personal Data Protection Authority, which cannot currently be obtained, so we have designed the enrolment not to need any.
- Case by case, and we may say no. The programme asks for 22 hours a week alongside school. Where we do not think that is realistic or safe for a particular young person, we will say so rather than enrol them.
How we work with younger learners
- No one-to-one private channels between staff and a minor. Coaching calls and messages involving a learner under eighteen happen on academy channels, and a parent or guardian can ask for a record of them.
- At the campus, a minor is not alone with a single member of staff in a closed room.
- Nothing of a minor’s work is published (not on a Career Passport, not at demo day) without the parent or guardian’s separate written consent, and that consent can be withdrawn at any time.
- SmartSana Labs client engagements are for Level 3 and are not open to learners under eighteen either.
- The placement after Level 2 is not open to learners under eighteen. It follows Level 2 and involves a third-party organisation abroad; we will not place a minor with one.
Raising a concern
If you are worried about the safety or wellbeing of any learner, and particularly a learner under eighteen, go straight to the centre head. Do not wait for stage 1 of the complaints procedure and do not wait to be sure. Concerns can be raised by a learner, a parent, a member of staff or another learner, and can be raised anonymously.
Review
This page is reviewed by the establishment council at least once a year and whenever we enrol a learner under eighteen for the first time on a programme. Local legal advice on the duties a private training provider owes to minors under Cameroonian disability and child protection law is outstanding, and is on our own checklist of things to resolve.