Internship Training · Career level

Career level · Module 1: Professional Conduct and Workplace Orientation · Lesson 2 of 3

Confidentiality, Safety and Data Protection at Work

Protect the people and information you work with, and stay safe on site.

In this lesson you will

  • Identify confidential and personal information in a workplace
  • Follow basic safety and data-protection rules

Key concepts

confidentialitypersonal dataneed to knowworkplace safety

The lesson

Interns often see sensitive information: beneficiary lists, patient records, salaries, customer phone numbers, passwords. Treat everything you see at work as confidential unless you are told it is public. Do not share it with friends, on social media or in your portfolio.

Personal data is any information about an identifiable person. Use it only for the task you were given, do not copy it to personal devices, lock your screen when you step away and follow the organisation's rules for storing and deleting files.

Safety matters in every placement — electrical equipment in a repair workshop, cables in a server room, field visits for NGOs. Learn the safety rules, the emergency contacts and what to do if something goes wrong, and report hazards immediately.

Step by step

  1. List the types of sensitive information you may see in your specialization.
  2. Read a sample confidentiality agreement and summarise it.
  3. Identify three safety risks in your future workplace.
  4. Agree how you will anonymise work for your portfolio.

Practice activity

Review three scenarios (a beneficiary list on a shared computer, a request to post a photo of a client, a damaged power cable) and write what you would do in each.

Expected result: Correct, safe responses that protect people's information and physical safety.

Check your understanding

  1. Can you include a screenshot of a real customer list in your portfolio?

    Show answer

    No. Remove or replace all personal data, or ask permission and use an anonymised version.

Taught live by an instructor — online or in person. Free course lessons are for self-study and do not lead to a certificate — see registration options.