Valeo's Technical Institutes dedicated to training

Inside Valeo

Training employees is a Group priority and part of its strategy of excellence. The Valeo Technical Institutes contribute to this goal.

Participants from several European countries discover hybrid technology with IVST at La Verrière (France)

The goal of the eight Valeo Technical Institutes (VTIs) is to promote and implement in-house training solutions for products, technologies and processes.

"Our training programmes are designed for all the Group's employees, not just technicians," explains Thierry Géant, Director of IVST (Valeo Thermal Systems Institute), a member of the VTI network. Every year the institutes deliver 600 training sessions, more than 40% of which outside France, via 400 trainers, Valeo experts, and specialists. "Without them, the Institutes couldn't function since they have only a couple of employees to manage them and coordinate the network," adds Thierry.

Every year, the Institutes draw up a single catalogue of courses after carefully studying requirements. They can thus provide programmes that mesh with Valeo's strategy and current R & D trends. "The challenge lies in developing expertise, so we have to anticipate, launch, deploy and develop constantly," he says.

The VTI network provides employees with tools, such as the dedicated VeGA website with its single catalogue, and also shares its special training-management applications. In some cases the dissemination of knowledge, which is so vital to the VTIs and to which they contribute by managing their areas of expertise, extends beyond the confines of the Group.

At their request, customers – and, more recently, suppliers – have been able to benefit from knowledge-sharing. Thierry explains: "Typically, the special relationship we have with Valeo Service allows us to provide training for the external network of our aftermarket business".

Because the VTIs want to improve technical skills within Valeo, foster dialogue between specialists and encourage people to become trainers, they have launched a number of carefully targeted actions. For 2011 the network's clearly stated goal is to become more efficient in providing an overarching technical training solution for the entire Group.