Graduation Ceremony at Toyota Technical Skills Academy for Emerging Leaders demonstrating Power and Compassion (Initiating Chapter 1)

Toyota Technical Skills Academy Graduates Overcome Challenges Amidst COVID-19

This year, the graduation ceremony of the Toyota Technical Skills Academy, established in 1938, took a different turn due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The ceremony, held on February 18, was attended only by graduates and instructors, with parents viewing the event via webcast. Despite the restrictions, the spirit of the Academy's aim to cultivate professional skills in monozukuri (manufacturing) shone brightly.

The students, employed by Toyota, demonstrated remarkable initiative throughout the pandemic. They adopted the "YOU perspective", an attitude to take action for others, and learned the importance of thinking about what they could do for others. This perspective led them to make themselves happy by trying to bring smiles and happiness to others.

One of their most notable initiatives was a park cleaning project. With the cancellation of off-campus training, the students took it upon themselves to clean local parks, removing every weed by hand to create a worry-free play area for children. Their efforts were appreciated by the locals, who offered them food and drinks in gratitude.

In response to the pandemic, third-year students began a project to make cloth face masks, starting from scratch and considering every aspect of the project. The students found that just running stitching provided sufficient strength for the masks, greatly improving productivity. They coordinated the donation of masks to local medical associations and the city hall's Day Care Division.

The students also engaged in a creative and physical project called "Creative and fit in everyday life". They made their own stamps from modeling clay, explored various surfaces to use as stamp bases, practiced the stamping technique, rode bicycles to find new surfaces outdoors, and transformed their stamps into final products like cards and posters using both artistic skills and digital media.

The Academy provides a three-year program in high school and a one-year technical program for technical high school graduates. There is a "sister school" of the Academy in Bangalore, India, called the Toyota Technical Training Institute.

Yoshimura, one of the coordinators for all social contribution activities, stated that the students aimed to 'choose and support people who usually hesitate to step forward'. Kato, another social contribution activity coordinator, said, "I could see they were smiling even though they were wearing masks. I'm really glad I did it."

The graduates of the Academy are expected to lead the genba (workplace) of Toyota plants in their future career. As they embark on this new chapter, they carry with them the lessons of resilience, initiative, and compassion they have learned during these challenging times. This year, the Academy graduated about 250 students, ready to make a difference in the world of manufacturing.

Graduation Ceremony at Toyota Technical Skills Academy for Emerging Leaders demonstrating Power and Compassion (Initiating Chapter 1)