To build skill-sets and develop talent, Japanese auto giant Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) is focusing on training rural youth from parts of Karnataka, to make them job-ready as workmen in the automobile sector.
TKM, which runs two manufacturing plants on the outskirts of Bangalore, has just conferred academic degrees to 64 students for their successful completion of a three year residential programme at the Toyota Technical Training Institute.
According to Padmanabha B, general manager, HR division, TKM, the three year programme is aimed at providing an opportunity to intelligent students from the state, who are unable to opt for higher studies, and "train them free of cost to be skilled technicians in auto manufacturing and plant administration."
Candidates belonging to BPL families, who have completed their class 10 with a certain score card, are taken into the programme, and trained in areas like automobile assembly, automobile paint, automobile weld and mechatronics etc.
Post the training, which also includes a six month on the job training, candidates are given a certificate, and can get absorbed into TKM. "Many students from the earlier batches have joined us and are doing very well on the jobs," said Naomi Ishii, managing director, TKM.
Started in 2007, TTTI wants to bridge the skill gap that exists between what the industry requires, and what is taught academically to students. The first batch of students passed out in 2010. TKM deploys some of its own people interested in skills development as trainers for freshers.
"The idea is to make them employable so that they are able to get productive early on," said Padmanabha, adding that though the intention post the programme is to absorb the candidates into the company, it also depends on the company's intake every year.
