Last Updated: November 2, 2026

At Support Ontario Youth, our mission is to raise awareness and provide guidance, resources and expertise to jobseekers, apprentices, employers, and educators to enable successful completion of the skilled trades pathway, leading to fulfilling life-long careers.

SOY works closely with employers, apprentices and up-skilling participants to help navigate the apprenticeship pathway. SOY:

• Equips up-skilling participants with essential skills and knowledge required to excel in various trades
• Advises apprentices on all aspects of their apprenticeship, including safety and job opportunities, and provides them with mentoring that will help prepare them to enter the skilled trades confidently
• Connects job-ready apprentices with job opportunities
• Provides ongoing continuous mentorship to ensure their apprenticeship continues efficiently
• Supports employers in finding great candidates

It is SOY’s goal to provide access to accurate and correct information about programs and training opportunities available to all and mentor individual candidates on the best path for them. SOY offers a digital platform on its website that is purpose-built to monitor and document the development, application and mastery of skills by Apprentices and to offer a seamless technology experience for the apprentice to keep them on track in their journey.

In addition, SOY provides organizational clients with effective information management and analytics solutions, in particular for the management of apprenticeship programs.

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected through our website, online portal, programs, events and services, and from our clients as applicable (the “Services”).

In this Privacy Policy, “we/us/our” means SOY.

What is Personal Information?

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” means information about an identifiable individual but does not include business or professional contact information such as the individual’s name, position name or title, work address, work telephone number, work fax number or work electronic address.

Consent to Privacy Policy Terms

When you register for our programs or provide your personal information to us, we collect, use and disclose it for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Some uses of your information are optional, such as marketing communications, the use of your photos or videos on social media, or sharing your information with prospective employers. We identify these uses separately and obtain your informed, voluntary written consent where required.

When you take part in our programs, we may share relevant information with our funders. We may also be required to keep certain records for as long as our funding agreements and applicable laws require.

You may opt out of marketing and other optional communications at any time. You may also withdraw your consent or ask us to delete your information, subject to legal and contractual requirements. Where we must keep certain records, we will keep only what is required and securely dispose of or anonymize it when it is no longer needed. Withdrawing consent or deleting your information may affect our ability to provide some services to you.

Children and Youth

Age and consent requirements vary by program. Some of our programs, including those delivered in schools, may serve participants under the age of 14. Where required, we obtain consent from both the participant and their parent or legal guardian, including for uses of personal information outside program delivery, such as photos or videos used for promotion.

How Do We Collect and Use Personal Information?

When you visit, use or request our Services, we may collect personal information or other information that you choose to provide.

Personal information that is collected from you may include:

1. Name
2. Contact information, including emergency contacts
3. Date of birth and/or age
4. Geographical location
5. Payment information for purchase of resources or making donations
6. Your preferences for communications
7. Employment history
8. Educational history, including test scores, exam marks, class attendance or other testing and performance information
9. Demographic and eligibility information, including government-issued identification numbers where required
10. Program participation information, such as attendance, assessments and outcomes
11. Other information that you choose to provide, including but not limited to:

1. Information that you choose to provide by way of a comment, a “like” or communication with SOY staff;
2. Information that is necessary to manage your online profile (if you choose to create one) such as a valid email, password, and responses to challenge questions;
3. Health information, such as allergies, medical conditions or accommodation needs, that you choose to share so we can support your participation and safety; and
4. Feedback you choose to provide.

Some information is required to take part in our programs, and some is optional. If you provide information about another person, such as an emergency contact, you confirm that you have their consent to do so.

Personal Information that is Automatically Collected From You

When you use our Services, we may automatically collect and store certain personal information in server logs. This may include:

1. The type of operating system you use;
2. Device event information such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and referral URL;
3. Cookies or other anonymous identifiers that may uniquely identify your browser;
4. Your IP address (a series of numbers that are automatically assigned to your computer when you go online);
5. The date and time you visited the website;
6. Which pages you visited;
7. The order you visited the pages;
8. How long you spent on each page;
9. The page you entered the site on; and
10. The last page you looked at before you left.

We may use your personal information to enhance your experience by providing content that is targeted to you.

Our Purpose For Collecting Personal Information

We collect personal information for the following purposes:

1. To facilitate our Services, including targeting of services to your specific needs and connecting apprentices, up-skilling participants, employers, and all stakeholders with each other and relevant resources;
2. To support apprentices and up-skilling participants in their training and skill development, and career planning;
3. To support employers in identifying the best candidates;
4. To assist SOY in developing strategies on how to best assist apprentices, up-skilling participants, employers, and all stakeholders;
5. To administer our scholarship program;
6. To administer funded programs and meet the reporting and audit requirements of our funders; and
7. To provide information management and analytics solutions to our clients.

Other purposes:

1. To monitor website usage and ensure that content on the website is presented in the most effective manner;
2. In relation to marketing, surveys or other email communications, where we have obtained consent to send such communications;
3. To promote our programs using photos, videos or testimonials, where you have given consent; or
4. As otherwise required or authorized by law.

Third Party Information Collection

If you register for our services, in general we will collect personal information directly from you. From time to time, we may be required to collect personal information from third parties, such as Skilled Trades Ontario, with your consent or in accordance with the law.

We may also collect personal information in order to provide information management and analytics services to our clients in accordance with client instructions. This may include personal information relating to applications for apprenticeship, educational and employment history or other personal information as disclosed to us by our clients in accordance with the terms of the contract and applicable law.

How Do We Share Personal Information?

Any personal information collected by SOY may only be accessed, used and shared on a “need-to-know” basis by SOY staff (including contractors) for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. Individuals have only the access they require to perform their specific tasks.

We do not permit any personal information we collect to be accessed, used or shared by companies, institutions, organizations and individuals outside of SOY unless one of the following circumstances applies:

1. To SOY administrators. The Services may contain customized versions of proprietary software products owned by third parties and licensed to SOY. Personal information may be shared with such third-party licensors but only when necessary for the operation, maintenance, upgrading, customization, or testing of such software. Personal information may be shared with third-party vendors, consultants or service providers who need to know this information in order to assist us with the purposes identified in this Privacy Policy.
2. To employers. With your consent, we may share your personal information with prospective employers or organizations to support employment opportunities, including apprenticeship, and they may contact you directly.
3. To scholarship administrators. We may share your personal information with individuals who support SOY in assessing and awarding scholarships.
4. To our clients. We may access, use and share personal information received from our clients with our clients in accordance with the terms of our client contract.
5. To Skilled Trades Ontario or other regulators. We may share your personal information with regulatory bodies who need to know the information for the purpose of supporting your apprenticeship.
6. To our funders. We may share relevant information with the funders of programs you take part in, as required to administer those programs and meet their reporting and audit requirements.
7. For research. We may, in limited circumstances, share your personal information with institutions, organizations or universities for research purposes. We will only share this information in accordance with the applicable law and with your express consent to do so.
8. For legal reasons. We will share personal information if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:

1. comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request;
2. detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues;
3. protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of SOY and the users of SOY; or
4. otherwise for the purpose of obtaining legal advice.

9. With Consent. Other than as set out above, we will share personal information with companies, institutions, organizations or individuals outside of SOY only when we have your express consent to do so.

International Data Transfers

Where required by our funding agreements, personal information is stored in Canada. Other information may be processed outside Canada by our service providers and may be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction where it is processed.

We will take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Use of Cookies

We use cookies to provide you with a good user experience, tailor content and continually improve our website. For example, we can recognize and remember important information that will make it more comfortable for you to browse our website, such as preferred settings.

What are cookies and similar technologies?

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that our website stores on your browser or the hard drive of your device or mobile device. Cookies perform various tasks (including remembering your preferences) and are an important part of improving your experience of our website.

Session cookies are deleted automatically when you close your browser and persistent cookies remain on your device after the browser is closed (for example, to remember your user preferences when you return to the site). First-party and third-party cookies are used to track and record page views, and for targeting and behavioural preferences. Secure cookies are used to encrypt your data during a submission process, and to ensure safe transactions when ordering or purchasing materials.

Our website may also use other similar technologies, such as web beacons, pixel or gif tags, and action tags. Those technologies also collect information that assists us in improving our services, use of our website, advertising and customer communications.

For example, if you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices.

How to block cookies?

Most internet browsers are set up by default to accept cookies. If you want to refuse or delete them (or similar technologies), please refer to the help and support area on your browser for instructions on how to block or delete cookies (for example: Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari). Keep in mind that each browser has a different procedure for managing and configuring cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including necessary cookies), you may not be able to access all or parts of our website.

You can find more information about cookies at https://allaboutcookies.org.

Google Analytics

We utilize Google Analytics to better understand your use of our website and services. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit the website, what pages they visit and referrals from other websites that contain a link to our website or our URL. Google uses the data collected to track and examine the use of the website, to prepare reports on its activities and provides them to us. Google may use the data collected on the website to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network. For more information about how Google Analytics handles privacy, please see its Privacy Policy.

You can opt out of Google Analytics through your browser’s privacy settings or by installing Google’s opt-out browser add-on.

Social Media

Our website may include social media features and widgets such as the “Share This” button. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our website, and may use cookies. Social media features and widgets and your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing the service.

Links to Third-Party Sites

This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, the privacy practices of third-party websites that may be linked to or accessible through our website. For example, articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

If you submit your personal information to any third-party sites, whether by way of review of articles or otherwise, your information is governed by their privacy policies.

No endorsement of any third-party products or services is expressed or implied by any information, material or content referred to or included on, linked from or to this website.

How Do We Secure Personal Information?

We are committed to protecting personal information in order to prevent unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification or disposal or similar risks.

We use reasonable technical and security measures to protect personal information. 

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect personal information, we cannot absolutely guarantee the security of information.

We will continually review and update our security policies and controls as technology changes to ensure ongoing personal information security.

Retention

Your personal information is retained for the period of time necessary to meet the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. Records related to funded programs are kept for the period required by the applicable funding agreement and laws, even if you stop using our Services, close your account or ask us to delete your information. When personal information is no longer required, we securely dispose of or anonymize it.

Email or Marketing Communications

If you wish to opt out of email or marketing communications, you may contact us at info@supportontarioyouth.ca.

Accuracy of Personal Information

We use reasonable efforts to keep your personal information accurate and up-to-date. You are responsible for providing updates to your personal information as soon as possible.

Questions, Corrections or Requests for Access

You may request access to or correction of your personal information, withdraw your consent, or ask us to delete your information, in accordance with applicable legal requirements and as described in this Privacy Policy. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request.

Questions about this Privacy Policy and privacy requests may be made in writing to the Privacy Officer at: privacyofficer@supportontarioyouth.ca.

Changes to Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is subject to amendment from time to time. Please review this Privacy Policy regularly to stay informed of any updates. 

Please also refer to this website’s Terms of Use.