TIED SHOE, a Virtual Community of Practice for the Footwear Industry

The Leather and Footwear Industry in Europe has changed in the last decade. Faced with the Far East competition, based on intensive, low-cost, unskilled manpower, companies have understood that the only way to survive was to focus on high-quality, high-end products with design and strong added value. However, that approach requires a highly skilled, trained and motivated workforce. The TIED Shoe project created a Virtual Community of Practice (VCP) that allows footwear companies, stakeholders and professionals to share knowhow and experience and to access high quality training. This article describes this approach, the process of designing and developing the TIED Shoe Virtual Community of Practice and the analysis of the two first editions of the TIED Shoe VCP training that have already taken place with success. As a result, a steady but growing group of individuals is already working in the community in a profitable and synergetic knowledge sharing process.