ETRA and Six Partners Kick Off European E-Bike Training Project

GAND, Belgium – The European Two Wheeler Retailers’ Association (ETRA) and 6 partners kicked off the so-called ‘E-Bike’ project. This European partnership project is aimed at creating a framework for training on electric bicycles in the EU and is funded under the Leonardo da Vinci-programme.

Next to ETRA, it involves Innovam (Dutch Tweewieler Academy), Syntra West, Vilnious Jeruzales and CELF, respectively training institutes from the Netherlands, Belgium, Lithuania and Denmark. The Czech electric bike distributor Ekolo as well as Pro Work, a Dutch expertise and knowledge centre assisting low-skilled employees, are also part of the consortium.

In a first phase, the partners will make an inventory of existing training material and competence profiles. Next year, a number of study visits and train-the-trainer activities will take place. In the final stage of the project (2013), the partners will define best practice.

This partnership project could subsequently result in a bigger scale “transfer of innovation” project. This would be aimed at implementing and further refining best practice developed in this E-Bike project. The training target groups are both dealers and mechanics.

Last month the trade journal for bike dealers in Holland and Belgium – ‘Tweewieler’ – organized a discussion forum on e-bike trainings for dealers. After establishing the fact that currently there’s a lack in technical background know how and skills at mechanics working at bike dealers, it was determined that an obligatory training with diploma’s leading to nationally certified e-bike dealers are needed.