It was created as part of the social works of the Padres do Trabalho Congregation in 1969, configuring itself as the first technical and higher education level school in the current Steel Valley Metropolitan Region (RMVA).

[3][4] In this sense, the Padres do Trabalho Congregation was established in Rio Doce Valley, under the leadership of Father José Maria de Man,[5] a native of the Netherlands,[6] on October 28, 1963, three weeks after the episode known as the Ipatinga Massacre.

[5] The Padres do Trabalho worked on social projects in the Steel Valley region and proposed the construction of the University of Labor (UT), at first in the so-called Buraco Street, in the current downtown area of Ipatinga, when it was still a district of Coronel Fabriciano.

This location was desired because it was a poor slum with a high incidence of prostitution, at the same time as it was close to the Usiminas plant, which could provide both educational training and professional opportunities to this population.

[3][4] The "T" shape expressed at the top of the tallest building, where the Padre de Man School is located, refers to the first emblem and acronym and means "work (trabalho), tenacity (tenacidade)".

[14][15] This event was a direct effect of the crisis generated by hyperinflation, a situation that plagued the entire country at this turn of the decade and that led to a significant reduction in the number of students.

[13] The deactivation of the university was taken for granted and there were demonstrations in the city against the end of activities in 1990, which encouraged the return of its assets to SEUT and the subsequent creation of the Catholic Institute of Minas Gerais (ICMG).

Thus, this organization, linked to the Diocese of Itabira-Fabriciano, took over the maintenance of the educational institution under the direction of Dom Lélis Lara;[14] the religious, active in several social works in the Steel Valley, as well as Father José Maria de Man, intermediated the mobilization of several fronts, leaders and local entities in favor of the continuity of the university's operation.

[21] The institution provided 23 undergraduate courses within the areas of social and applied sciences, polytechnics, education, and health, as well as technical training in distance learning and graduate studies, according to information from December 2019.