JISC Legal Advice for Learning Providers

As a work based learning provider, does your organisation have an email/internet policy? Does your website have a privacy statement?

The use of IT in learning raises many legal issues and work based learning providers need to have awareness of these and of any associated legal risk. That’s where JISC Legal now comes in. A Joint Information System Committee (JISC) funded service, JISC Legal now offers high quality legal information free to the work based learning sector. The service explains the implications of IT law by making current legal information available to staff working with IT in the sector.

JISC Legal is an information service, they are not a firm of solicitors and can’t give professional legal advice – any material provided is for informative purposes only. However, the use of JISC legal services can save providers time and money, if only in ensuring their staff are fully briefed in legal issues relating to the use of IT.

They maintain the JISC Legal website, which offers a wealth of useful information as well as a form for online queries. They have also compiled a very useful Software Management Checklist which is designed to help learning providers manage the licensed software on their machines. A list of Frequently Asked Questions outlines a number of key topics based on queries the service has received to date. They also have a number of publications that cover topics such as monitoring internet use, issues relating to copyright, inappropriate use of computers and data retention.

JISC Legal is just one of the advisory services currently available to the work based learning sector (I’ve mentioned another on wobble previously). A full listing of JISC services can also be found on Innovate. For more information on how any of the JISC services can be used by your organisation please get in touch.