Toyota Kirloskar Motor, NSDC and ASDC join forces to make rural youth factory-ready 

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) has signed an MoU with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC) to enhance student skill with special focus on rural areas making youth more employable through the company’s training initiative, Toyota Technical Education Program (T-TEP).  

The MoU was exchanged between Ved Mani Tiwari, COO and Officiating CEO, NSDC; Arindam Lahiri, CEO, ASDC, and Sabari Manohar R, GM, TKM in the presence of Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Mr Vikram Gulati, Executive Vice President, TKM. 

As a part of this initiative, ASDC will identify the institute as per the requirements and Toyota will support the institute with latest curriculum covering automobile fundamentals, safety, Toyota values and basic soft skills. In addition, the company will provide e-learning content, engines, transmissions, practice kits and train the institute’s faculty through Train The Trainer approach. Furthermore, Toyota dealer partner will support skill development centers in sustenance and extend On-Job-Training to all the students. ASDC would support in infrastructure enhancement and ensure student training. TKM, dealer partners and ASDC will also conduct quarterly audits to ensure the training quality. After successful completion of the T-TEP course, the student will be certified by Toyota, NSDC and ASDC. 

In sync with Skill India mission
Aimed at generating talented and technically skilled professionals for the automobile industry, T-TEP is strongly aligned with the Skill India mission and has, so far, been associated with 56 ITI/Polytechnic colleges covering 21 states. Currently more than 10,000 students have been trained and 70% of the students are working in various automobile companies.  

Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s initiative, in collaboration with NSDC and ASDC, to establish skill development centres across the country with a special focus on rural areas will have a big impact in making the students highly skilled, employable, and future ready. This effort is aligned with the Government of India’s Skill India Mission. The government is committed to encouraging, supporting and collaborating with industry partners like Toyota by providing them with a platform that will boost their efforts in bridging the existing skills gap and help develop a workforce of global standards.” 

The Minister added, “The automotive sector is an important pillar of the Indian economy and offers huge scope in the manufacturing economy over the next 5-6 years, thereby creating huge opportunities for skilling. The partnership with Toyota is going to be an important one to shape this new direction to skilling and also serves as a shining example for other manufacturing companies.” 

Lauding the initiative,  Ved Mani Tiwari, COO and Officiating CEO, NSDC, said, “Since 2006 T-TEP has become a benchmark in imparting automotive training and providing immense benefits to the automotive service industry and society at large. By partnering with TKM and ASDC, NSDC will not only be able to build a highly skilled technical workforce, with greater career prospects in the automotive service industry, but also enable youngsters earn a decent livelihood by providing them with employment opportunities. This partnership will also encourage other automotive players to step forward in making India a Skill Capital of the World” 

Arindam Lahiri, CEO, ASDC said, “With advancements in technology in the auto industry and unprecedent growth in motorization, we need to ensure that the consumers receive the best-in-class services, especially in rural areas. To align with it we will be needing highly skilled technicians, making it imperative that students at technical training centres have access to advanced technologies and gain hands-on training experience. With this collaboration, training partners will get an opportunity to understand Toyota’s values, best practices, and advanced technologies which will benefit not only the students but also the entire industry, thereby contribute toward the Skill India Mission.” 

Expressing his views, Vikram Gulati, Executive Vice President, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “Toyota is known for its exceptional quality products and services, which stems from developing world-class people, processes, and infrastructure. We are continuously growing and adapting to the changing needs and dynamics of auto industry. Through the T-TEP initiative we are striving to provide talented youths, training, and access to advanced technologies hence this new collaboration with NSDC and ASDC will strengthen the talent available at the grass root level and help them upskill as per the market requirements.”