Background
The ECTOL Foundation has its roots in the ECOL Foundation, which is the European Crane Operator Licence Foundation. In order to extend its training activities to other relevant areas of work in heavy transport and lifting, the ECOL Foundation was renamed the ECTOL Foundation: the European Crane and Transport Operator Licence Foundation.
Objectives
The objectives of the ECTOL Foundation are:
- to develop and maintain a training, certification and registration system of crane operators at European level (ECOL – European Crane Operator Licence)
- to develop and maintain a system of training, certification and registration of hydraulic platform truck operators at European level (ETOL- European Trailer Operator Licence)
- to develop and maintain a system of training and certification for vocational training in the horizontal and vertical heavy transport sector at European level
- and to carry out everything that is related to this or which may be conducive thereto.
The ECTOL Foundation supports the following vocational training frameworks:
– ECOL – European Crane Operator Licence and
– ETOL – European Trailer Operator Licence.
In order to implement and maintain the ECOL and ETOL frameworks, three actors are important:
- The industry
- ESTA Europe
- The Market
To 1. The industry consists of all companies that employ crane and transport operators, their customers, crane and lifting equipment manufacturers and transport equipment manufacturers. Together they define the job requirements of a crane and transport operator.
To 2. ESTA Europe is the European association responsible for setting training standards and conditions, validation and examinations.
To 3. The participants – the organisations involved in the implementation of the training, examination and validation.
The ECTOL Foundation
The ECTOL Foundation is established to supervise and monitor the training, examination and validation framework. The ECTOL Foundation defines the criteria for becoming an ECOL or ETOL trainer and for becoming an ECOL or ETOL examination center. The ECTOL Foundation also issues certificates, recognises diplomas and manages the register.
Partnerships
ECOL and ETOL will only be truly successful if they are recognised and valued by organisations, governments, trade unions and industry associations. To make it work, cooperation agreements and partnerships will have to be forged with different types of stakeholders, such as governments, national authorities, the crane-using industry, trade unions and industry associations.