Leading equipment manufacturer Liebherr has agreed to become an approved training centre for ESTA’s planned European Crane Operators Licence (ECOL) after talks between the two organisations in August.
The news was strongly welcomed by ESTA and comes as ECOL undergoes its latest pilot project in Denmark. Two more pilots – or trials – are planned before the schemes goes live early in 2019.
Christoph Behmüller of the Training Department at Liebherr-Werk Ehingen said that ECOL has long been supported by Liebherr and the crane manufacturers through FEM. “ECOL is another important step towards more safety in crane operation. It is a great concern of ours to support and promote this project.”
When Liebherr is ECOL “approved”, it will be able to train and test operators for the ECOL-licence and can use the ECOL logo. In addition, Liebherr’s respected crane operator course can be credited to the ECOL licence.
ECOL will also be able to use part of Liebherr’s certified e-learning system for training and re-training purposes.
The agreement means that any operator that passes the future “aligned” Liebherr training will also be eligible to receive an ECOL licence – provided the operator registers with ECOL and the organisation’s SkillRecord system that logs his or her experience.