Cross Country Canada / Ski du Fond Canada

The National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) is a coach training and certification program offered in over 65 sports in Canada.  The principal objective of this program is to develop the abilities of coaches working with athletes at all levels, from the community level through to high-performance sport.

The NCCP is a collaborative program of the government of Canada, provincial/territorial governments, national/provincial/territorial sport organizations and the Coaching Association of Canada. 

Coaches can participate in training opportunities to acquire or refine the skills and knowledge required for a particular coaching context as defined by the sport. However to be certified in a coaching context, coaches must be formally evaluated.

The NCCP model defines a coach as:

• In training when some required training has been completed. "Training" is provided through sport-specific workshops exclusively up to the CCI context and a combination of sport-specific and non sport-specific workshops for the subsequent contexts (CCD and above).
   
• Trained when all required training is complete for a given context. In addition to attending workshops, coaches are required to meet some practical stage-specific requirements.
   
• Certified when all training and evaluation requirements have been met. Coaches competencies are evaluated on their demonstrated ability to perform within a context in areas such as program design, practice planning, performance analysis, program management, ethical coaching, support to participants during training, and support to participants in competition.