http://www.businessweek.com/print/globalbiz/content/jan2008/gb20080123_960639.htm
Focus on HR January 23, 2008, 7:22AM EST
Toyota Trains India Teens
The carmaker's Bangalore institute aims to give
poor teenagers a leg up and produce skilled
workers for the subcontinent's auto boom
by Nandini Lakshman
When Harish Hanumantharayappa returned to his
native village of Buraganahalli, India, a few
months ago, his old schoolmates thought he was
weird. Harish, 17, came wearing a Toyota (TM)
uniform: beige T-shirt neatly tucked into his
gray pants, gleaming black shoes, and a red cap.
His friends in the village 65 miles from
Bangalore also found him full of odd
habitscrossing the muddy village roads, for
example, Harish would stop, point his fore and
middle fingers, look right and left, and then
cross. He told his amused friends that he was
practicing what he was taught at the Toyota
Technical Training Institute (TTTI) at Bidadi on the outskirts of Bangalore.
Harish, who comes from a family that lives below
the poverty line of $177 in annual income, was a
good student but had no particular ambition.
Then, last April, his schoolteacher alerted him
to an advertisement by Toyota in the local paper.
The automaker was inviting applications from
17-year-old, poor and needy students for factory
training. It was offering free board, lodging,
and education, plus a monthly stipend of $38.
There were 5,000 applicants, and Harish was one
of 64 boys from the southern state of Karnataka
who made it to Toyota Tech, the training
institute that opened last August as Toyota's first outside of Japan.
He now wants to be an automotive engineer. "I am
so happy and can't believe," says Harish in his
broken English about how his life and dreams have
changed. They sure have. His mother and
grandmother earn 65¢ daily as farm laborers, a
brother is a bus cleaner, and a sister is
training to be a nurse. But Harish is determined
to change his life thanks to Toyota. In the three
months he has been at the institute, he has saved
$8 to give to his mother. "I want to make her
proud," he says, outlining his determination to
excel in his three-year course and bag the $180
and $230 fellowships for assiduous students.
Auto Boom Requires Talent
Toyota has spent $5.6 million to set up the
institute, which has a faculty of 21 permanent,
on-contract, and part-time employees. Toyota
execs emphasize that it makes good business sense
to operate the center in India (BusinessWeek.com,
12/3/07). The country's automobile market is
among the fastest-growing in the world at 1.5
million cars sold annually, a figure that is
expected to double to 3 million by 2010. "For us
to manufacture more cars, we must have good
people. The institute is such a step toward
that," says Toyota India Managing Director Atsushi Toyoshima.
Like most Indian and global auto players,
Toyotawhich has been selling its cars in India
for a decade nowis also expanding its business
in Karnataka. Toyota has utilized one-third of
its 400-acre Bidadi plot for its plant and other
facilities, with a capacity to make 60,000 cars a
year for now. The only models Toyota sells in
India are the Corolla, Camry, and the popular
multipurpose vehicle Innovaa far cry from
competitor Honda (HMC), which is doing far better
with a wider range that includes the Accord,
Civic, City, and CRV. Toyota has plans to launch
a new Corolla model this year and, like other
players, is also working on a new low-cost car
for India, to be launched by 2010. By then,
Toyota wants to expand its current 4% market share to 10%.
But expansion requires talent, and India is
woefully short of such specialized technical
talent and education. There are around 4,500
state-run technical institutes littered across
India. At a time when manufacturing in India is
booming, these institutes are considered
outdated. There's talk of them being privatized, but nothing much has happened.
In 2005, when Toyoshima visited several of the
state-run Indian Technical Institutes from which
most auto companies hired, the curriculum was out
of sync with industry needs. Toyoshima decided
drastic action was needed for the vital Indian
market, and he convinced his bosses in Japan to
set up TTTI in India. The institute's goal was to
bridge the knowledge gap by training young people
and equipping them with Toyota's best
manufacturing practices. "Our school can expedite
what needs to be taught," Toyoshima says.
Self-Improvement Part of the Curriculum
Another, ulterior motive was ensuring labor
loyalty. For the past five years Toyota India has
suffered a series of strikes and a lockout, with
labor unions protesting in support of better
wages and against the dismissal of two of their
members. Training youth in-house helps build
loyalty for Toyota on the assembly line. Toyota
sends the best Indian engineers and technicians
for specialized training in Japan, and upon their
return they will be the new trainers for the students.
The institute has three laboratories displaying
the various characteristics of the shop floor,
like welding and assembly-line equipment. The
students will spend two years in the classroom
and labs before stepping onto the shop floor in
their third year. The institute, including the
dormitories with pink-colored walls and pink
bedspreads, is squeaky clean. The only evidence
that there are students around is in the lobby,
where an entire wall has colorful charts and
boards that students have to fill out. Not only
does it help supervisors keep tabs on their
wards, there's scope for improvement at every stage.
The institute's coursework is based on Toyota's
Japanese parent institute's curriculum, but
adapted to Indiaoffering more wholesome
education for students who have lived modest,
unexposed lives. "So 33% of our curriculum is
based on mind and body development," says V. Ramamurthy, dean of TTTI.
For instance, along with automobile assembly,
automobile paint, automobile welding, and
mechatronics (integrated mechanical electrical
control & software design), students take
self-improvement courses such as home science and
yoga, as well as regular subjects such as English
and history. The boys also receive lessons on
personal grooming, cleanliness, and discipline.
"The philosophy is to expose problems and take
remedial action so that they don't occur," says
the school's principal, T. Somanath, who was
earlier the head of Nettur Training Institute, 248 miles away.
Corporate Social Responsibility
For many students, the institute provides a novel
exposure that has changed their world. Rangaiyya
Pandurangappa, a short, freckled 17-year-old,
says he had not tucked his shirt into his shorts
ever, nor had he worn shoes with laces before
coming to TTTI. The only son of a peanut farmer,
he hadn't even heard of Toyota in his village of
Sriya, 54 miles from Bangalore, until he saw the
ad in the local paper. "After coming to the
institute, I even wash my hands before meals," he says.
Toyota is viewing the first batch of students as
a test case for the future. The company plans to
employ the students once they have completed
their three-year training, though they will have
the option of leaving the company and working
elsewhere. There is no bond to be signed, and
students are free to join other automakers. "It
is a corporate social responsibility initiative for us," says Somanath.
But Toyota also wants to make its investment pay
off. When the boys go on vacation, Toyota
encourages them to go home in their Toyota
institute uniforms which, together with the
finger-pointing routine, is bound to leave an
impression on the locals. Harish's experience
shows the strategy is working. When he was home,
he was bombarded with questions from his friends.
It made him immensely proud. "I have suddenly
gained respect in my society," he says, beaming.
Lakshman covers India business for BusinessWeek .
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
