The foundations for this project were laid since the beginning of 1990. In the numerous meetings of organizations from European countries and from Romania, the need to have a center, in Cluj, that offers consulting and training for Romanian economic and social development was expressed.

Thus, in 1994, with the help of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Luxembourg, a partnership was formed: CFDT and CODIFOR of France, CSC of Belgium, LCGB Luxembourg, and The Commerce Chambers, Employers' Association, ATCOM, UCIC, Cartel ALFA, UJSDR and „Fratia” of Cluj. The result was the creation of The Economic and Social Training Institute -IFES, in Cluj.
This institution has been built with the participation and under the supervision of the aforementioned partners, and has benefited form the material support of the European Commission by means of the Phare Partnership program.
Between 1995-1996, we made very rigorous selection and training of future consultants. More than 100 people had initially applied to be admitted in the project. Each had to undergo a training period of one year, with a final two weeks of training in France and Luxembourg.
Functioning as a foundation, with support from the same organizations now having a founding member statute The Economic and Social Training Institute began it's activity on the 1st of October 1996.

The board of administrators

At it's founding, IFES was one of the first organizations in Romania to be administered in partnership by representatives of the economic and social sectors. As it was in 1996, the Board of Administrators is composed of:
- Employers' Association of the Cluj Region
- The Territorial Association of the Manufacturers' Cooperatives
- The Commerce and Industry Chamber - Cluj
- CNS Cartel Alfa - Cluj
- The National Trade Unions Block - Cluj
- CNSLR Fratia - Cluj
- CJSDR Cluj
- The Consultative Intersyndical Union - Cluj
The presidency of the Administration Council is assured through rotation, by the representatives of the “business environment” and of the “social environment”. The Mandate is of 2 years.

Our values:

efficient methods
- punctual interventions or partnerships with clients
- a continuous effort to understand the real needs of the clients, and to adapt our professional message to these needs
- modern pedagogical methods, applied according to the demands of particular situations
- knowledge transfer and access to mainstream information

employees
- consultants and trainers with a solid theoretical and practical knowledge pack
- co-workers from the academic as well as social or economic environment
- a continuing and sustained documentation effort

professional advantages
- good knowledge of the Romanian social and economic environment
- experience, built in almost eight years of activity
- mediation of interventions by European Union experts in all the fields of the IFES service offer, on good terms.

commercial advantages
- favorable commercial conditions
- collaboration contracts, by which we establish objectives, responsibilities and deadlines.

improving quality
we grant special attention to the way our services are appreciated by their beneficiaries. We measure and evaluate the degree of satisfaction of our clients and we mean to improve the quality of our activities.

achievements and experience
- consulting
(management, social dialogue, organizing events, elaboration and/or implementation of projects, market studies business plans, feasibility studies)
- training
(determining the training needs, open and in-house courses)
- cooperation and national and international partnerships

Experience:

Quality management:
Our activity and achievements have led IFES to be one of the most appreciated partners in quality management consulting and training. We are and will be honoured to join our efforts and competencies with your approaches and resources towards results: SUCCESS.
In our consulting experience, we have found that the most frequent problems encountered during projects for implementation of quality management systems are concerning resource management, human or material. The net advantage of collaborating with IFES is the possibility of having the multidisciplinary assistance that our team can offer in solving this kind of problems.
Our interventions are customized to the given situation in the client organization and to each organization's context of activity.

Quality, reflected in Client's satisfaction, is our priority in everything we do. Improving and diversifying our services, along with our professional approach and problem solving, allow us to contribute to the development of our client organizations' activity.

Human resources:
The offered services in Human Resources Management show, once again, the wide range of expertise we can offer to our clients.
The preoccupations of personnel dedicated to this domain (IFES employees or collaborators) have turned towards the market, that is towards our clients' needs. Thus, we have supplied consulting and/or training in a classical context, based on collaboration contracts.
We can cover specific Human Resources Management problems, but also combined with quality, development projects, juridical support, etc.

Projects:
- Design and implementation of a complex system for evaluating professional performance for the employees of one of the most important insurer-reinsures in Romania;
- Development of competencies and specific practice of the human resource management function at more than 10 SMOs from the Cluj region, along with presenting important information regarding alternative financing sources and quality management.
- Development of competencies and counselling practices for career orientation, in the employees of the Regional Occupational and Juridical Resources Centre.
- Studying the elements particular to the manager or entrepreneur for women, establishing and implementing a support program for these careers, by providing specialized assistance, and training and also by editing a good practices guide.

Perspectives:

We wish that IFES remain an important supplier of consulting and training services, with an offer that is permanantly and in fact adapted to the needs of the market.
 
- directions in developing our consulting and training offer:
- consulting
- environment quality management
- aspects of total quality management
- quality management in the food and beverages industry
- organizing internships for graduates or students
- organizational diagnosis
- training
- development of a wide curriculum (marketing and sales, quality, finances, human resources, public relations, legislation, …)
- IFES is hoping to receive shortly an accreditation as continuous adult education supplier, according to Romanian law.
 
We respond to clients' needs by perfecting our employees, who will acquire the experience and competencies required for a professional approach.
 
Local social dialogue ... at national level
In accordance with our objectives, we shall act to the increase of personnel expertise, to the identification of the best European experts in their domain, to the best documentation and information gathering. As such, through developing our training services and through organizing social dialogue events, IFES will become a first hand player at national level. We shall stress information dissemination. In order to reach this goal, we shall use classical approaches (briefings, printed material) as well as the perspectives offered by information technologies (Internet pages, e-mail, and discussion groups).
European integration and international collaboration
In the next years, we wish to remain one of the most active members in the Association For The Integration Of Romania Into The European Union. As an organization, we consider that it is within our powers to promote adults' continued education as support for the transformations concerning the Romanian adhesion perspectives. Seven years since its' founding, IFES has partner-ships or collaboration relationships with many European organizations of the same or similar profile. We are very much interested in continuing our collaboration within European projects that concern a wide spectrum of contemporary European society aspects, projects that would include training components.