NICAS Pro launched on 21 March 2024. We’re thrilled to unveil our innovative digital platform designed to empower accredited NICAS centres with tools and resources to enhance your delivery of NICAS. Here’s a glimpse of what is possible with NICAS Pro:
- Coach Resources: Create session plans with ease with our comprehensive coach resources. Access coaching handbooks, lesson plans, technique videos, and engaging game ideas – all at your fingertips to help you put together inspiring NICAS sessions.
- Online Learning Modules: Fuel your professional growth with our online learning modules. As we build these modules, dive deep into various topics to enhance your knowledge and skills as a climbing coach.
- Candidate Management: Candidate management functionality from Tahdah will be absorbed into NICAS Pro. Easily add and manage candidates, and efficiently sign them off as they progress through scheme levels.
- Brand Central: Elevate your marketing efforts with our digital marketing assets. Download logos, social media resources, and tailored marketing copy to promote NICAS at your centre effectively.
- Booking and Ordering: Simplify your administrative tasks with easy logbook orders and seamless event bookings for NICAS inductions and other exciting events.
The launch of NICAS Pro marks a significant milestone in revolutionising your NICAS experience, and we’re just getting started. Over the coming year and beyond, we’re committed to enhancing NICAS Pro with fresh content, new learning modules, and innovative features to enrich your accredited centre’s delivery of NICAS. See our:
Frequently Asked Questions
(Last updated: 15/04/2024)
What if I don’t have a login?
If you are a Course Director at an accredited centre, please email pro@nicas.co.uk for assistance. For other wall staff, please speak to your Course Director in the first instance – they should be able to send you an invite to join NICAS Pro. Please contact us if you are unable to gain access via your Course Director.
Why can’t I find some of my candidates on the new system?
For NICAS Climbing and NICAS Bouldering Levels 1-2, we imported candidates registered within the last 2 years on Tahdah; for levels 3-5, we imported candidates registered in the last 5 years. We recognise some candidates will have taken longer than these timescales for a variety of reasons.
If you have additional candidates you need imported, please advise us via pro@nicas.co.uk and we will grab them from our archive.
Will any more resources be added?
Yes, we will be adding new resources on an ongoing basis. There are a number of Level 3 and Level 5 resources in particular, and additional Level 1 plans that we have ready to upload.
After that, we will be curating and creating further resources based on your feedback. Whether this is video content, specific types of lesson plan or anything else – we would love to hear what you think!
Can I watch the NICAS Pro webinar?
Click here to watch a recording of the NICAS Pro launch webinar, which gives a walkthrough of key features with how-to videos plus a Q&A session.
Known issues and fixes since go-live
The launch of Pro enabled us to identify user issues and the development team were working around the clock during the find and fix phase, which meant making changes directly to the live system.
At times, these changes caused additional issues. We are now able to make fixes in a sandbox environment which means we can test them in isolation away from the live platform.
Fixes already made;
- Site speed increases (we will continue to make improvements here)
- Cut, copy & paste now available on relevant pages with editable fields
- Page refresh issues causing inputs not being saved
Of course, if you spot any other issues, we are open to all feedback, as after all the site needs to work for the people using it – so keep your feedback coming.
Clarifications
Certificates
We have online certificates available to download on the site. This is an added feature rather than a replacement for providing physical certificates. Over time we may review this, and we are aware that being able to email certificates, for example, saves paper. However, we also recognise that receiving a paper certificate by hand from your coach is part of the experience and recognition of achievement for candidates, so we will be reviewing this carefully.
Development
Items we are currently working on as at 15 April 2024 on the site:
- Allow ACDs to be able to invite staff: This will be optional, and the Course Director should let us know if they wish this to be the case.
- Allow Course Admins access to coach resources: We recognise that with Tahdah, if someone had a staff login, they automatically gained access to resources., There isn’t a reason to stop administrators accessing these resources, especially when they are also coaches or may be helping coaches prep for their sessions.
- Adding “change of personnel” forms to NICAS Pro dropdown menu: NICAS needs to be notified within 30 days when your named NICAS personnel change. We ask you to submit a change of personnel form for changes to Course Director, Assistant Course Director, Technical Advisor or Competent Person. This allows us to review the qualifications, training and induction status of new personnel, and then ensure new directors are set up with the correct account permissions on NICAS Pro. Thank you for helping us keep your centre records up to date.
- Registering to next level: We are adding additional guidance on registering candidates in our “How to use NICAS Pro” help guidance. To register existing candidates to a new level the process is to add candidate, then select “candidate already exists”, then add them to their new level. NB this will search within the existing candidates already registered at your wall.
- Updating our guidance on how to use NICAS Pro: As we make changes to the system, we’ll be updating our guidance accordingly.
Future development items under review:
- Transfer process: Currently walls need to contact us with transfer requests but we are looking to reinstate a direct process for this.
- Coach directory: We would like this to be a live feature but will be doing additional development and communication about this feature with walls, before we take this wider.
- Bulk uploads of candidates: We can assist large bulk requests, we will keep you updated as we look at a direct method to enable this within the system for walls to be able to do this directly.
- Shop options: We are reviewing requests for co-branding and are happy to speak directly to anyone who is interested in this for their centre. Please email pro@nicas.co.uk
Pre-Launch Information (kept here for reference)
14th March 2024: Transition Period Begins
From 17.00 on 14th March, you will no longer be able to add new candidates or sign off candidates in Tahdah. After this date, we will transition all candidate data since 1st January 2022 plus all Level 4 and 5 candidate data since 1st January 2019. NICAS will store candidate data from before 2022 securely, which you will be able to access on request.
21st March 2024: Webinar for Course Directors
Join us for an exploration of NICAS Pro via a daytime webinar, with a video walkthrough available for those unable to attend live. At the end of the webinar, Course Directors can start inviting accredited centre staff to join NICAS Pro. Upon login, coaches and course administrators can access walkthrough videos of NICAS Pro features to ensure a smooth transition to the platform.
About the Webinar
Date: Thursday 21 March 2024
Time: 10.00am to 11.00am, followed by Q&A
- The webinar will be split into two parts:
- Exploring the features of NICAS Pro.
- Onboarding and managing your centre staff, and understanding different types of staff accounts on NICAS Pro.
This webinar will take place online via Zoom, and is aimed at Course Directors. We also encourage Assistant Course Directors to attend, and welcome other staff members.
Attendees must register for this webinar, and we have emailed a registration link to all CDs and ACDs. If your centre has not received an invite to register, please contact admin@nicas.co.uk
Next Steps
Wondering what to do next? An email containing this information has been distributed to Course Directors and Assistant Course Directors at our accredited centres. It’s crucial that Course Directors in particular are informed about the upcoming NICAS Pro launch, so if you are able, please check that they received this email. To change your Course Director or add a new Assistant Course Director, please use our personnel change forms. For any queries or other updates to your key contacts, please contact us at admin@nicas.co.uk
Pre-Launch FAQS
We know that a change will bring questions so we will be adding to this list of Frequently Asked Questions as we finalise the rollout of NICAS Pro.
How do I register with NICAS Pro?
We will contact the Course Director at your centre to give them access to NICAS Pro. Once NICAS Pro is live, Course Directors will then be responsible for inviting members of staff to register.
How do I log in to NICAS Pro?
You will be able to log in to NICAS Pro through the NICAS website once it is live.
I want to add more schemes to our NICAS offering, should I wait?
With the coach resources and online learning modules that NICAS Pro will bring, there has never been a better time to add the Wild Climbers, Clip, Climbing or Bouldering scheme to your centre’s NICAS offering. You can continue using Tahdah as usual until 14th March, then after 21st March all of your data and services will be available in NICAS Pro. All other NICAS services and processes will continue as normal, so if you’re interested in running a new scheme, please contact admin@nicas.co.uk for more info and an uplift application form.
Can I download our candidate data from Tahdah?
As joint Data Controllers, accredited NICAS centres (who have authorised staff with Tahdhah accounts with the required permissions) can download their candidate data from Tahdah up until 5.00pm on 14 March 2024. Please consider your centre’s data privacy policies associated with managing any data downloads.
What happens to candidates that have not completed courses in Tahdah?
We will transition your accredited centre’s NICAS candidates (who have had activity associated with their account in the last 2 years for all schemes up to Level 3, or last 5 years for candidates who are Levels 4 and 5) into NICAS Pro whether they have completed a NICAS level or are currently registered as working towards a NICAS level. You will be able to sign off candidates from their current NICAS level within NICAS Pro. We will be updating our privacy notices to reflect the changes in data systems.
What happens if a candidate restarts activity on a NICAS scheme, but their account wasn’t migrated?
We will retain data in accordance with our privacy policies and be able to assist with data for historic accounts on a case by case basis.
What should I do with candidates who need to be registered before I gain access to the new system?
You will not be able to access Tahdah or log any candidate data after 14th March 2024. NICAS Pro will launch on 21st March 2024 and you will be able to resume adding candidates to this new system after this date. We ask that you hold any logbooks during this time and resume adding candidate data once NICAS Pro is live.
My centre offers NICAS Clip, do these changes apply to me?
NICAS Clip has used a different option for candidate registration, and we are reviewing how we integrate this into our new system, but at this stage there is no change for NICAS Clip candidate management. Updates will be provided directly to Clip centres on any updates to NICAS Clip processes.
What happens to my own account on Tahdah?
If your Tahdah account was created through another organisation such as Mountain Training, your account on Tahdah will be retained with associated data included (e.g. Mountain Training qualfications, CPD, DLogs etc). If your account was created through NICAS/ABCTT and you have used Tahdah solely for managing NICAS candidates, your account will not be retained. You will need a new account on NICAS Pro (and will be invited to join via your Course Director, or by NICAS directly if you are the Course Director). NICAS will keep your Tahdah record in accordance with our data privacy notices. We will retain data about training or inductions attended, for example, so that we are aware of the training status of NICAS personnel. If you require NICAS training you have attended to count towards Mountain Training CPD, we can provide confirmation from our records in order for you to update your MT CPD records.
Are any further changes happening to NICAS with these digital updates?
You may notice some changes to the look and feel of our nicas.co.uk website after 21st March too – the content will be largely the same and we will then be adding more exciting features in the coming months!
How do I stay up to date about NICAS Pro developments?
We will keep this page updated with any new information. We will also email any important notifications to Course Directors and Assistant Course Directors. Please ensure you notify us of any changes to NICAS personnel at your accredited centre ASAP using a personnel change form or by emailing admin@nicas.co.uk if staff have left.