ECOL is an European Operator Licensing System aimed at the operators of mobile cranes as defined in the EN 13000 construction norm. Operators of tower cranes and overhead cranes are not yet included in the system.
The ECOL system sets a standard for the training and examination of operators; it also sets a standard for the content and quality of the training and examination administered. The training itself is done by local training institutes established in the various EU countries. They will also arrange a local examination.
The ECOL standard has different training programs for novice operators and for operators who already have a national licence and a number of years of operating experience. Please refer to the relevant sections of the website for detailed information.
Once licenced under the ECOL programme, an operator is required to register his experience in the SkillRecord experience registration system. This registration involves the type of crane operated and the type of work performed and allows him to prove his experience as operator to new employers or new clients. For more information on SkillRecord please refer to www.skillrecord.com .
The validity of ECOL licences can be checked by using the credential checker on the ECOL website; in this way it can be established if a licence is valid and has not been revoked. In this way “card fraud” with falsified cards is eliminated,.
Another feature of the experience registration is a live database of licenced operators that can be reached by email; ECOL will use this feature to inform crane operators in the system of safety issues with certain cranes or specific operational situations, in order to enhance operational safety.