Caio Coelho’s career is a success story — one that began with a training program at Volkswagen Truck & Bus, which then opened up the path to the 32-year-old’s dream job in engineering. Today, Coelho is a supervisor in Powertrain Engineering.

Text: Roman Scherer

“I couldn’t have imagined one day having a position with responsibility in an international company,” Coelho reminisces. In 2007, he took part in the Formare training program at Volkswagen Truck & Bus in Resende. The program offers theoretical and practical knowledge to 17- and 18-year-old Brazilians to provide them with the qualifications they need to start their career. As part of the Formare program, Coelho worked at VWTB and Consórcio Modular, an association of suppliers who take responsibility for work steps within the VWTB production chain. VWTB and its partner organizations were the first in their region to offer this training program for young people. Today, more than 50 companies throughout Brazil take part. Coelho’s successful completion of the program first allowed him to earn a degree and then led him to his current profession. “The program has been a great opportunity for young people for decades. Many of them are hired immediately by partner companies or earn the qualifications to go to college or university,” says Coelho.

Project manager

Coelho studied at Associação Educacional Dom Bosco in Resende and earned a bachelor’s degree in production engineering with a focus on the automotive sector. After that, he completed a postgraduate program in quality engineering at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. He then gained experience working in research and development and project management for VWTB’s service providers. In 2017, he received an invitation to join VWTB as a Product Engineer, and after four years he became Powertrain Engineering Supervisor, responsible for 20 engineers and 30 external employees. “I do find it incredibly challenging,” says Coelho. “But it’s exciting to have the opportunity to take on so much responsibility within the company.”

Lifelong learner

Always learning, developing, and taking on new tasks — these are the main things Coelho thinks of when he envisages his career. At VWTB, he can make this vision a reality: He has completed another degree alongside his job at VWTB — an MBA in project management from the University of São Paulo. He also likes the fact that VWTB is part of the TRATON GROUP and works closely with the other Group brands. He appreciates the dialogue with people from other countries; his job means he is often in touch with engineers at MAN, in particular. “We use the same base engines and technologies,” Coelho explains. “But we have to make adaptations for the Brazilian market, for example to make the engines compliant with the emissions standards that apply here.” While all contact with colleagues in Germany had to take place digitally during the pandemic, early summer 2022 marked the first workshop where the participants were once again able to meet each other face-to-face. That was definitely a highlight for Coelho. If he had his way, this would continue to be a regular occurrence in order to show the physical products and vehicles application with development colleagues.

Family man

When he is not working, Coelho enjoys nothing more than spending time with his family and friends. This engineer is a passionate family man. He hardly has any time these days for soccer, his old hobby. Right now, he is enjoying his role as a new father to his little daughter Vitória. Although he loves fully devoting himself to this new challenge, he also still makes time for his volunteer work as a teacher and trainer for the program that made it possible for him to begin his professional career. He passes his knowledge and experience on to the next generation of Formare participants — making sure that the future will bring more success stories like his.

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