About to celebrate 50 years on the road, Vipal Rubber has in its DNA the tradition of promoting training for its teams and business partners. In 1982, the company conducted the first training courses and began to expand its technical assistance; culminating this trajectory in the creation of Vipal Corporate University, which has just completed 10 years. Between in-class and online activities, more than 68,000 students took training courses on all continents.

Over these ten years of history, the corporate university already held a total of 5,362 classroom courses, with the participation of 42,822 students. In the online format, a modality that has intensified with technological advances, the possibilities of video transmissions and the pandemic, 427 live and distance learning (DL) training sessions were performed, with the participation of 25,490 professionals. Adding the enrolments in the two-course formats, the university completes ten years of activities, reaching 68,312 students who qualified through its courses.

The history of training began with the first course on Application of Tyre Repair products, held in Nova Prata/RS, Brazil, for some regional customers. Between 1984 and 1986, new training courses were introduced, such as the Tyre Casing Examination and Retreading Process, leading to the development of the first tyre retreading manual. At the same time, the company's first curing chamber was acquired. And in 1987, the Vipal Technical Center (CTV) was inaugurated; the first group of technicians in tyre retreading was graduated in 1994.

The Creation of Univipal

The year 2013 marked the formation of the corporate university of Vipal Rubber – Univipal, also starting the distance activities for partners of the authorised network. The following year, distance learning (DL) in Spanish began, and the Specialisation in Business Management course was formatted, aimed at owners and managers of the Vipal Authorised Network. The training covered relevant topics aimed at sustaining and achieving results in the retreaders' business, with information focused on strategic, administrative/financial, personnel and commercial management. The course received a recognition certificate by the Ministry of Education of Brazil (MEC) as an Extension Course.

In 2017, distance learning training was launched in English, making it possible to increase the number of participants significantly. The years 2018 and 2019 marked the creation of the Production Management course, held in person in several regions of Brazil. Distance learning (DL) were launched for the agricultural segment in the same period. 

In this way, Univipal courses began to be taken by professionals from Brazil and throughout Latin America, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

The pandemic and new courses 

In 2020, the world faced the pandemic, and Univipal expanded the number of distance training. The distance learning (DL) Technical Basis for Tyre Management presented all in-class training in video classes with practical demonstrations of all processes conducted by Vipal technicians. The live online course on Production Management for Retreaders was also launched.

The main novelty created by Univipal for the period was the transmission of lives addressing issues of fundamental importance for the tyre retreading segment. More than 15 lives were broadcast between 2020 and 2022, covering topics such as Tyre Management, Tyre Calibration, and others. The university's technical instructors presented the contents and provided a Q&A time to clarify the participants' doubts. All content is still available on Vipal's YouTube channel through the link www.youtube.com/VipalBorrachas. 

According to Leandro Paim, Vipal Rubber/Vipal Machinery Technical Assistance Manager, “the 10 years of Univipal mark the consolidation of a process that is in the company's DNA, which is to seek the constant improvement of processes and the sharing of knowledge and experiences acquired through over almost 50 years on the road. It is a source of pride for the company to offer relevant content so that people around the world can improve and grow as professionals in their areas of activity within the tyre retreading segment,” highlighted Paim.

2022 results 

In 2022, Univipal promoted 327 classroom training sessions, which were attended by 2,129 participants. There were more than 53 training courses, including live and distance learning (DL), with 2,451 students. This way, over 4,500 professionals were trained in various technical and management areas focused on the tyre retreading segment last year. To learn about the university's training platform, just access: https://univipal.adapta.online/.