CIP Call 2013/2014 - 4th Training Week

Week 4 of the Train-the-Trainers programme: visiting Igualada

Friday October 17 saw the conclusion of a successful but intense 4th week of the Train-the-Trainers programme. Participants continued to progress in their respective field-projects, gaining practical experience while observing "live" the outcome of a well-led cluster initiative.

During the training week, a day-trip was organized to Igualada, a mid-sized town in the outskirts of Barcelona, famed for its centuries of tradition in tanning. 20 years ago, however, the city's tanning industry was on the verge of complete disappearance. While many local companies died, some learnt to survive and managed to turn-around their strategy. Today this group of survivors is hugely successful and delivers products to top-fashion designers all around the world.

On that day, participants had the opportunity to ask questions and learn directly from the business owners, workers, and experts who took part in the strategic reinvention of Igualada's tanning cluster.

Spirits were high as participants travelled back home with images and testimonials from a city that has lived the ups and downs of industrial adaptation. From their respective countries they would continue their field-projects and get prepared for the fifth in-class session taking place in Linz, next November.

CIP Call 2013/2014 - 3rd Training Week

Train-the-Trainers Programme: regional Cluster Initiatives continue to take shape

The 3rd week of the Train-the-Trainers programme came to a close last week. It brought the sense that real progress is taking shape for the Cluster Initiatives launched within the nine-month Cluster ExcellenceManagement programme.

This part of the course used workshops and teamwork to further develop participants' capacity and capability in implementing Cluster Management strategies towards specific regional economic initiatives. A platform was created that pushed boundaries past discussing economic and cluster developmental theories, towards plans for real action, bridging the gap between strategy and implementation. 

In a world where policy does not always meet practical implications, this training programme offers an essential junction where policy is used within realistic expectations. On the field, positive local economic development is made possible through the application of the various strategic tools discovered in class. Also, while sharing knowledge and expertise from peers hailing from all over Europe, participants develop insight, self-confidence, and the ability to formulate a comprehensive strategic diagnosis. 

In teaching standard tools and a methodology to promote regional competitiveness that leverages on economic clusters, the Foundation's goal is to allow for more prosperity, for more "shared value". Healthy communities of SMEs, healthy clusters, make for healthy regions.

CIP Call 2013/2014 - 2nd Training Week

The latest training programme on Cluster Management goes on with an intense second training week

Barcelona hosted the second week of the Train-the-Trainers Programme 2014. The new intake of international participants completed the additional academic modules designed to promote Cluster Excellence Management.

Pursuant to their first training week of May, 42 participants from across Europe have completed a new and intense week, part of of a nine-month training programme in Cluster Excellence Management. 

During the week the participants from 10 different countries furthered their knowledge through new academic modules in Cluster Excellence Management following the Foundation’s methodology. They also reflected on cases studies describing successful Cluster Initiatives, such as the "Montreal circus cluster", the "Avocado industry in Chile" or the "Textile case in Catalonia". 

The programme which combines 6 weeks of intense in-class training with a hands-on, practical experience, in managing a regional cluster initiative, was developed under the European Cluster Excellence Initiative (ECEI) with co-funding from the European Commission.

This six-week programme will continue with a new training week scheduled next September and taking place in in Barcelona. Meanwhile, the alumni will keep-on training through advanced teamwork placed under the supervision of tutors from the Foundation.

Interestingly enough, most participants from the previous CIP Call 2011 programme successfully embarked as Cluster Excellence Management trainers in their respective regions. Emulating from their predecessors, participants of the current course are expected to take the same successful route.