Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website.
We use cookies to make Skills for Careers work and collect information about how you use our service.
How we use cookies
We put small files, called 'cookies', onto your computer when you use the Skills for Careers website.
Cookies collect information about how you browse the site. They also:
- measure how you use the site so we can improve it and meet your needs
- remember the notifications you've seen so that we do not show them to you again
We do not use cookies to identify you personally. You'll usually see a message before we store cookies on your computer.
Third party cookies
Some cookies may be be placed on your computer by third parties and partners we work with.
We use these cookies to:
- help us understand how you use our website
- capture your comments and feedback through surveys
- provide online support if you need to speak to a careers adviser
Sometimes we’ll include content from other sites, such as YouTube, who may set their own cookies.
We might also share information about your use of our pages with our social media and advertising partners, such as Facebook. We do this to help improve the relevancy of advertising campaigns you receive from us.
If you decide to share a link to one of our pages, the service you share it on might set a cookie. We have no control over cookies set on other websites and you can turn them off but only through the website you’ve used.
Find out more about how to manage cookies.
Change your settings
You can change cookie preferences for this website at any time from the cookie settings page.
Cookie list
We use 2 types of cookie. You can choose which cookies you're happy for us to use.
Cookies that measure website use
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics software to collect information about how you use the Skills for Careers website. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users, and to help us to make improvements.
You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies at any time.
We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data.
Google Analytics sets the following cookies:
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | This helps us count how many people visit this website by tracking if you've visited before | 2 years |
| _gat | Used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made | 10 minutes |
| _gid | Stores and updates a unique value for each page you've visited to help us improve your experience | 1 day |
We also set our own cookies to understand how people move through the site:
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| ai_session | This helps us count how many people visit this website by tracking if you've visited before | 30 mins |
| ai_user | Used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made | 1 year |
Microsoft Clarity
We use Microsoft Clarity to understand how you use the Skills for Careers website. This information helps us to improve the website.
Microsoft Clarity uses the following cookies:
| _clck | Checks if you’ve visited the Skills for Careers website before and makes sure you're given the same ID | 1 year |
| _clsk | Connects a user’s page views into a single session recording | 1 day |
| CLID | Identifies the first time Microsoft Clarity saw this user on any website that uses Microsoft Clarity | 1 year |
| ANONCHK | Indicates whether the MUID cookie is sent to ANID. ANID is not used by Microsoft Clarity, so is set to expire at the end of your session. | end of session |
| MUID | Identifies unique web browsers visiting Microsoft sites. These cookies are used for advertising, analytics and operational purposes | 1 year |
| MR | Indicates whether to refresh the MUID cookie | 7 days |
| SM | Used to synchronise the MUID cookie across Microsoft domains | end of session |
Other third party cookies that measure website use
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| id | Third party cookie to show relevant content based on the way you browse the site | when you close your browser |
| DSID | Third party cookie that manages user activity across devices. This is an auto generated encrypted unique id | 14 days |
Cookies that remember your settings
These cookies remember your preferences and the choices you make, to personalise your experience of using the Skills for Careers website.
SmartSurvey
We use third party SmartSurvey software to collect information about how you use this website.
We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users, and to help us make improvements.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| SmartSurvey Cookies | Third party cookies that allows us to link SmartSurvey responses to how you used the site using google analytics, and gather your survey response effectively. For more information, please see SmartSurvey privacy information | when you close your browser |
Other surveys
We also have our own feedback surveys to collect your comments and feedback. These surveys use the following cookies:
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| voc_Personalisation | Remembers the last job profile you visited | when you close your browser |
| JPsurvey | Remembers if you've given feedback on one of the job profile pages you've visited | 1 month |
| Ipsos-overlay | This cookie handles user satisfaction survey on our website | 28 days |
| Survey | Remembers if you've interacted with a survey on our website | 28 days |
Strictly necessary cookies
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| SF-TokenId | Third party cookie that manages site authentication | 1 hr |
| BNES_SameSite | This enables the website to function properly | when you close your browser |
| ARRAffinity | Helps you move around the website and to use our searches and other tools | when you close your browser |
| BNES_ARRAffinity | An encrypted copy of ARRAffinity which is used by our firewall to provide an extra level of security | when you close your browser |
| ASP.Net_SessionId | Used to store page data between http requests at our server | when you close your browser |
| BNES_ASP.NET_SessionId | An encrypted copy of ASP.Net_SessionId which is used by our firewall to provide an extra level of security | when you close your browser |
| dysac-session | This holds the user session Id and is not persisted when the browser closes | 24 hours |
| dysac-results | This holds the collapse status of each of the job categories and is not persisted when the browser closes | when you close your browser |
| seen_cookie_message | You may see a pop-up welcome message when you first visit a DfE site. This cookie saves a message to let us know that you've seen our cookie message and it should not be shown again | 28 days |
| cookies_policy | Saves your cookie consent settings | 1 year |
| cookies_preferences_set | Lets us know that you've saved your cookie consent settings | 1 year |
| ncs_hide_custom_banner | This cookie remembers your preference to show or hide the page banner / message. | when you close your browser |