ESTA’s growing European Crane Operators Licence (ECOL) has adopted a new in-company apprentice training structure which the organisation’s leaders hope will make it easier for countries with a strong tradition of apprenticeships to become directly involved in the project. In light of the development, one leading German organisation has already indicated that it intends to … Read more
It is with great sadness that the ECOL Foundation has to announce the sudden death of Supervisory Board member René van der Steen. He was 64 years old. René had been suffering from ill health for some time but until recently – driven by his great energy and enthusiasm – he was able to continue … Read more
CRANE & LOGISTICS Partner receives ECOL Certificate as the first German based examination institute!
Global crane and heavy transport specialist Sarens has applied to qualify its Belgian training facility under ESTA’s new European Crane Operators Licence. The move is another big boost for the ECOL scheme. To date, two European training facilities have become ECOL qualified – Mammoet in the Netherlands and EUC-Lillebǣlt from Denmark – with a further six … Read more
The new future management team of ESTA’s planned European Crane Operators Licence (ECOL) project is almost complete as the project nears its formal launch early this year. The final meeting of the current ECOL Working Group took place in Copenhagen, Denmark at the end of January. The voluntary group, chaired by ESTA Director Ton Klijn, … Read more
ESTA’s planned European Crane Operators’ Licence is receiving growing support from major clients who see it as a way of improving performance and safety on site. ESTA Director Ton Klijn said: “There are very good signs that client organisations are beginning to see the advantages of ECOL. Informally, we have already had strong signs of … Read more
ESTA and the ECOL Working Group are very sorry to announce that our good friend and colleague Gunnar Mardon died on October 2 following a stroke. Gunnar was Chief Executive Officer of Canada’s National Occupational Council and sat on ESTA’s European Crane Operators Licence working group where his support and expertise was of great assistance … Read more
ESTA has applied to have the ECOL operator certificate registered and recognised by the Dutch NLQF qualifications framework. Through the NLQF it will be aligned with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) Level 2 across Europe.
ESTA Director Ton Klijn is calling on European training organisations to send in their training schemes so that they can be validated against ECOL standards. “The idea is to compare all of the national training schemes and to identify what is needed – if anything – for them to comply with ECOL standards,” Klijn explained. … Read more
The first trial of the new European Crane Operators Licence scheme has been successfully completed at Mammoet’s training centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Four crane operators were processed through the ECOL system which involved 240 hours of training split evenly between theory and practice. So far, three have passed – one at the second attempt … Read more