India - The company's Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing (JIM) has welcomed its second batch of 362 students, after recording 100% placement for the first 254 in June 2018. JIM is located at Ganpat University in Mehsana, Gujarat.
"Growing skill gap is a crucial challenge faced by young India," said A. K. Tomer, executive director, corporate planning, Maruti Suzuki India. "Our aim at JIM is to reduce this gap and empower students with skills relevant to the automobile industry requirement. Besides the core technical skills JIM grooms students in Japanese Manufacturing Practices and Processes that are important to succeed at the workplace. Also, the mini-vehicle assembly line, well-equipped workshops give them an experience of working on a real shop-floor."
Students receive 38 hours of training a week in line with the National Council of Vocational Training (NCVT) certified curriculum, while ten hours are dedicated to various shop floor practices, interview skills, english language education and safety training. A practical training facility includes a realistic assembly line, virtual welding simulators and spot welding guns.
JIM is part of a joint initiative set up between the governments of Japan and India in order to create a pool of 30,000 skilled workers for manufacturing in India.
The nearby Suzuki plant in Gujarat, which is located an hour and a half away from Ganpat University, started operating in 2017. Its current capacity is around 250,000 units per year, but with a US$88m investment outlined in 2017, Maruti Suzuki has plans to take it to 450,000 units per year. Suzuki recently announced that it had made its 20m vehicle in India since it began making cars in the country in 1983.
