Week 5 of the Train-the-Trainers Programme: from Linz, Austria
The fifth week of in-class training ended with participants achieving further accomplishments on the road to completing their field projects. Participants of the Train-the-Trainers programme continued with the European Foundation for Cluster Excellence in-class curriculum during this week, while being hosted by Clusterland Oberösterreich in the city of Linz, Upper Austria.
Clusterland is made up of a network of clusters located in Upper Austria. This organization is a unique entity as it manages clusters completely from a private point of view. They hold a policy for economic development that is cluster oriented and promotes strategies of sustainable innovation and competition among companies. It is with this efficient and systematic management that many of their clusters have achieved the Gold Cluster label.
Many of our participants took advantage of this week to complete the reference trips mandatory for their field projects visiting local or nearby best-in class companies. They got the opportunity to meet with regional gold labelled clusters and cluster agents to see impressive examples of what cluster excellence management can look like. One highlight of the week was notably the visit of Bombardier's Austrian subsidiary Rotax also known as BRP-Powertrain GmbH (see picture); a distinguished member of Upper-Austria's automotive cluster.
The end of the week was met with excitement for the future as participants continue to move forward in developing further knowledge and understanding of what cluster excellence means in practice.
