A competence management system (CMS) was devised to assist the registration of competencies in the textile and clothing sector, starting in the four EU countries of Portugal, Slovenia, the UK and Denmark, further leading to the European network. This paper presents the design and development framework assisting international multicultural environments at the system, organisational and individual levels. Education and training providers are facing demands of the industry and labour markets internationally. The CMS is assisting the transparency, recognition, mobility and partnership between education and training providers, the industry and stakeholders at the international level. For individual users, CMS has proven to be very effective in providing the overall status of competence profile and professional development needs. At the organisational level of employers, the identified functions include the improved overall knowledge management, and a more efficient competence needs assessment and transparent exchange within the larger environment and labour market. As regards the system level, the competence framework at the national level, and the transparency and recognition at the international level, had proven to be efficient at application in the labour market. (Contains 5 figures.)