POPIA privacy notice

Responsible party: Gearhouse South Africa, 31 1st Street, Bezuidenhout Valley, Johannesburg, South Africa.

We collect the information, questionnaire responses and documents in this application to assess learnership eligibility, motivation and work readiness, verify qualifications and identity, contact applicants, support safe participation, and administer successful learner placements. Household income bands are used for programme reporting and statistical analysis. Supplying the required information is voluntary, but an incomplete application cannot be assessed; applicants may select Prefer not to say for household income.

Device IP address, browser details, location coordinates, city, country and permission timestamps are recorded to protect applicant information, investigate unauthorised access and maintain the administrator System Log. An applicant camera image is stored only when the applicant deliberately takes or selects an application photograph. Before administrator sign-in, the administrator is shown a live preview and a clear notice that one encrypted photograph will be captured when Sign in is selected. That photograph is linked to the successful, failed or blocked sign-in event and is visible only to the system Owner in the portal. For a failed or blocked sign-in, the same JPEG is also attached to a mandatory security email sent only to active Owner administrators. Passwords and Authenticator codes are never included in that email.

Banking and tax details are not collected at application stage. Successful applicants will be asked for those details later through an approved onboarding process if required.

Identity documents, applicant and administrator sign-in photographs, health and disability information, demographic information, signatures and qualifications are confidential. They are restricted to approved administrators and authorised service providers, used only for the stated purpose, and protected with access controls and encryption. Automated scoring is initial triage only; an authorised person must review every application before a decision is made.

Application records and portal copies of administrator sign-in photographs are reviewed for deletion after 12 months and are retained longer only where a lawful operational, contractual or record-keeping reason applies. Security photograph attachments in Owner mailboxes remain subject to the Academy's authorised mailbox security and retention controls. Hosted operators may process information outside South Africa only where a POPIA-permitted safeguard or consent applies.

Applicants may request confirmation, access, correction, restriction or deletion, withdraw consent where consent is the processing basis, or object to processing. Contact jhb@gearhouse.co.za or +27 11 216 3000. Complaints may also be submitted to the South African Information Regulator.

Privacy notice version 2026-08-31-v7