Experience - Recognition - Methodology
With twenty-three years of experience, we empower economic development professionals
to transform policy into development outcomes, craft implementation strategies,
develop sustainable value chains, and build competitive clusters.
We are an independent non-profit foundation established in 2003 with contributions from the governments of Catalonia, Sweden, and the UK, and chosen by the EU in 2010 to promote excellence in cluster-based economic development. Our Board of Trustees, made up of governments officials, academics, and practitioners, ensures the fulfillment of our mission
We have trained more than 1,300 economic development professionals from over 40 countries. Development agencies, governments, and multilaterals trust us to deliver their training. The World Bank Academy has selected our Summer School as one of their Trade, Investment and Competitiveness Practitioner Programs.
Our instructors come from a global pool of experts drawn from leading business school academics, experienced cluster practitioners, policymakers and public officials. This unique mix of combined expertise ensures our programs bridge policy, practice and academic rigour, and equip participants with practical skills in cluster development and economic development policymaking.
Our training programs use the case method as their primary teaching approach. Alongside cases from leading business schools worldwide, our own repository of cases brings the real experience of cluster practitioners and policymakers directly into the classroom. Case sessions are further reinforced through lectures, small-group discussions, roundtables, workshops and practical hands-on projects.
The Competitiveness Summer School at IESE Business School in Barcelona is an annual summer program for senior policymakers and professionals in economic development, offering three days of an overview of the tools and two days of visits to best-practice examples.
The Competitiveness Academy offers tailored programs in your country, from short one-week introductions to year-long, on-the-job capacity-building courses. These programs are designed to strengthen the skills of local teams of economic development professionals, public and private.
