Previous employer has disposed of my qualification certificates.

Alz1986

Should they have disposed it? Truth is its more to do with customer service and competency of staff rather than a policy issue.

TBagpuss

I'm guessing that, like a lot of organisations, they have been doing all the GDPR prep and learned that destroying outdated information meant they did not need to try to get consent or provide other proof of their entitlement to hold it.

I agree that it is weird for the employer to have had the original certificates, I would normally expect that, other than for internal training, anything like that would be held by the employer, with the employer taking a copy if necessary.

OP I think that because you didn't ask until after you had finished your notice, it is in part on you - once you've left, it's not inherently unreasonable for the employer to assume you have no further use for stuff you have left behind.

Hopefully you will be able to get any duplicates you need fairly easily, and moving forward, if you do further courses, ask at the time for the certificate, or, if your employer wants to hold them, for a copy for your own records, at the very least.

Les79

Brookside88 wrote: »

At the beginning of maternity leave my partner felt that it was a years paid holiday too but after I went away for a few days and left him with the baby he soon changed him mind and is now very supportive. My point is that for a lot of women it is still an expectation and it's up to her to fix that, as I did with my partner

To be fair maybe I'll feel the same way after having a child

But, from my perspective I've dealt with a lot of maternity requests in the past. More than happy to put them through, and male maternity requests makes me smile because it doesn't happen often enough, but just sort of get a cynical with it all when the patterns emerge.

beckysheffield

Les79 wrote: »

I have to say, but I'm jealous of women who go off on maternity (though also appreciative that men can go off work for the same reason, but a lot less frequent). It does come across as merely being a paid holiday from work in some respects, more so when notice to leave is given shortly after maternity ends (but less so when the employee returns as normal)!

Holiday?

I understand it must be really annoying to not know if the mother was going to come back after her maternity leave - it would be better for mother!!!8217;s to give an honest response, but as we live in a capitalist society and wages are low, life is bad.

beckysheffield

Mrs_Soup wrote: »

Speaking from university point of view I would check with your prospective university what they actually need to see before paying out for things they might not need.


I too am appalled that an employer would just shred things or even have them in the first place- I can undertsand them keeping copies but why on earth would they have the originals, those belong to the person who did the qualification.

My uni didn’t require any ceritifiates. No idea how they knew my a levels.

The employer had the originals because they paid for the course or it was part of working for the company.

prowla

The past couple of ceritifications I've done did not issue physical certificates and they hold the registration online in my name and with a unique reference number; I can (and have) downloaded a PDF.


As for working for a company and ownership; if it's in your name then you own it. You worked for it, just like you worked for your pay.

beckysheffield

I need to keep my options about motherhood of this thread