Toyota Training the World...sort of

It appears that Toyota has set up a 3 year technical training school in India to expand automobile manufacturing expertise in that area. According to one report this is the only training school outside of Japan.

“The Toyota Technical Training School will train students in various aspects of automobile manufacturing such as welding, painting, automobile assembly and mechatronics.”

Another article described the venture in this way:

“The purpose of this technical training institute was to offer an opportunity to acquire special skills 'Monozukuri' or skilled manufacturing, for those students who had the talent but could not go for higher education due to economic reasons.”

Students for the school are carefully screened prior to admission.

“...the first batch of 64 students has been selected through a competitive exam and classes for the three-year residential course will commence this month.”

Wow, a three-year residential course. How can someone afford to drop everything and take three years off to learn about automobile manufacturing? The article answers:

“The students will be paid a monthly stipend in the range of Rs 1,800 and Rs 2,200 for the duration of the course.”

So not only will Toyota train you, they will also pay you to be trained. I guess in order to do something like that you would have to have some sort of binding contract that the trained individual work for Toyota so the investment is not lost. Nope, see what the Toyota spokesperson had to say:

“We are not making them sign any contracts at this point, but it is possible that the whole batch will be hired by Toyota once the students pass out”

This effort shows Toyota’s interest in developing communities while developing their hiring pool. In a previous article I mentioned the work they were doing with Kentucky K-12 schools to Strengthen the Human Supply Chain. Toyota seems to make a habit of trying to improve the education programs around their factories. Here is a quote from another article describing Toyota’s effort:

''I have seen nearly a dozen multinational car manufacturers come to India. But they have been busy in increasing their manufacturing capacity by opening up more plants. But Toyota has been faithful to the local community by opening up training centres and helping the industrial training institutes and other technical institutes.''

What would be the impact to the entire world if all corporations showed the same attitude toward education in the communities in which they operated?

Comments

[John Hunter]

Nice post, I liked the commentary :-) Toyota holds a rare view on the purpose of a company http://management.curiouscatblog.net/2005/08/16/purpose-of-an-organization/

[Rich Hoeg]

Access to $100 for a training course can be difficult at many companies ... this must be another example of "The Toyota Way".

[Josef Horber]

This concept of "dual" education is quite familiar here in Germany. For nearly all professions across all levels, You can find a company, who employes You for typically 3 years, pays You a low but decent amount and lets You spend 50 - 80% of Your time working in every function of that company. You spend the remaining time at school or university. The majority of blue collar professions are taught this way. But the concept is well working for university degrees as well.

I studied this way business administration, with a focus on industrial engineering. By the end of the 3 years I knew all production and administration processes of my company. Although there is no binding contract, that You have to continue to work there after You finish the 3 years education, this seems to be the most natural thing to do for both parties. In fact, I started my first job even before finishing the education, so I was already pretty high on my learning curve and day 1 in the job was just another normal day at work.

[Sudharak]

If you convert dollars to rupees,it comes to $50 per month. Can trainees survive for three years?