“I want to be as good as the men here. It is also my desire to get more women from my village to sharpen their skills here and then get them to stand on their own feet,” says the young woman apprentice at the Toyota Technical Training Institute (TTTI).
While her English is smooth and fluent, what is even more striking is the sense of quiet determination. She is one among the 1,000-odd trainees who have been handpicked after a rigorous selection exercise to undergo a three-year programme at TTT. Till recently, girls accounted for a minuscule proportion of the student community. But that is changing now with the institute keen to increase their representation.
From this year, adds a senior faculty member, there will be greater focus on gender diversity and the idea is to ensure that there are equal numbers of boys and girls going forward with the cumulative strength being around 1,200. TTTI, which began operations in 2007, is located next to the Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) plant in Bidadi. It is an hour’s drive from Bengaluru and the Japanese automaker is perhaps its most prominent resident in this industry belt.
In the case of TTTI, the idea was to train local people and get them onboard the Toyota ecosystem. The youngsters are typically drawn from interior villages in Karnataka and then brought over to the Bidadi premises to start a new phase in their lives.
Tough shift
“It is not an easy transition by any stretch of the imagination. These are kids who have had very little exposure to cities and what it is like to meet other people. Almost all of them have studied in the vernacular medium at school and English is virtually an alien language,” says a faculty member.
Despite this huge handicap, the notice board at the TTTI campus has essays written by some of these students. Not only is the English flawless but the handwriting truly stunning. A group of journalists has been invited to TTTI and our arrival coincides with the morning drill. In a way, it is a throwback to our own school days and the sombre assembly sessions with the principal holding fort.
The big difference between then and now is that these students need greater handholding and attention given their diverse backgrounds and the fact that their upbringing has been more difficult. Almost all of them have grown up in homes where there was not enough money and they had to fend for themselves in a brutal world. Life is never easy when one has to grapple with hardships accompanied by temper tantrums and violence that are so characteristic of broken homes and dysfunctional families.
In this backdrop, TTTI is akin to an oasis in a desert since it gives these youngsters an opportunity to break out of the shackles of poverty, and literally aim for the sky. The residential programme offers stipends to students apart from timely supplies of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Most importantly, they learn a variety of critical skills in the manufacturing process in the drive to emerge as world-class technicians.
Culture shock
According to an executive closely involved with TTTI, the idea of actually being fed meals was a huge culture shock to some students with extraordinarily difficult childhoods. “They were so overwhelmed initially that they wolfed down large portions of food before coming to terms with the fact that meals were an assured part of the programme,” he recalled.
To ensure that students did not put on too much weight and become flabby as a result, TTTI has put in place an exercise regimen where they remain fit while burning out all the fat. “Today, they understand the importance of agility in order to keep their minds focused on the job,” he added.
The TTTI team entrusted with the responsibility of selecting students does a thorough study of the candidate and ensures that he/she is truly in dire economic distress as part of the qualification process. They also visit homes if needed to check if everything is in order from the viewpoint of meeting the eligibility criteria.
Back to the present where the morning drill is underway and the prefect/head is directing the rest of the students to fall in line. The bonding is more than apparent even while everyone remains focused on the leader who urges them to repeat, actually shout out loudly, some important slogans. The national anthem follows and it is then off to class or the shop floor for the whole bunch of boys and girls.
“All this takes a lot of hard work and it is not a cakewalk to have complete strangers come together for a common cause,” explains the faculty member. He makes no bones about the fact that all the credit goes to Toyota for creating such a rigorous and creative template which ensures that everyone is in sync with the requirements.
Bonding is key
Team spirit is an integral part of the programme and this is not the easiest of tasks for Indians who are naturally competitive, which is a welcome trait but leads to people working in silos. There is no way of this happening at TTTI since the Japanese have traditionally placed team bonding ahead of individual excellence. “It is important to build the right attitude first rather than merely be the best,’ he adds.
TTTI is certified by the Japanese government through the Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing (JIM) and this is in recognition of its efforts in pushing the envelope when it comes to skilling. JIM, in turn, has accreditation from the Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industries, Japan, as well as the National Council of Vocational Training in India.
The JIM certificate is given to students who have successfully completed the course of Japanese manufacturing practices and processes which include a focus on safety, soft skills, vehicle assembly line etc. JIM also marks the start of collaboration between India and Japan going by an MoU signed in November 2016 which is intended to see 30,000 youngsters in India trained for a decade.
Huge change
According to G Shankara, Executive VP, Finance and Administration, TKM, the results of the training programme at TTTI have seen a remarkable transformation in skill building since the time it started 17 years ago. While many students have opted to work at TKM, others have moved on elsewhere but have carried their competencies to their new employers which is as critical in terms of meeting the basic goals.
The TTTI template has also been replicated in other institutes across Karnataka which is again useful from the viewpoint of reaching out to more students. “Going forward, skills will need to be scaled up especially with all the changes happening in mechatronics, software and IT,” said Shankara.
The success of the TTTI curriculum has also been borne out by the fact that some students have made the cut and worked in Japan for some months. In the process, they have had better exposure and returned to India with more competencies that can be shared with others. With the average age in Japan now closer to 50 (nearly twice as much as India), the future could see a greater outflow of workers from here to fill key job functions in that part of the world.
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