Huntsville Center for Technology Opens $40 Million Training Facility

The Huntsville Center for Technology opened a $40 million facility where 700 students leave their traditional high school for part of the day to receive industry-standard training. The school will send off its first graduates this spring. The center developed an “Inditech” program through a direct partnership with Toyota Alabama.

Toyota’s charitable endowment provided a $1 million investment to support the program.

The school’s principal told Fortune the program launched after identifying local employment gaps. Toyota’s Huntsville facility assembles nearly half of the company’s engines in North America. “We asked what is a specific program or pathway that you guys need and we can address,” the principal said.

“They said they needed more industrial maintenance workers. Some estimates project the shortage could cost the U.S. $1 trillion a year. The National Association of Manufacturers reported the U.S. needs about 1.9 million manufacturing workers by 2033.

Data center construction has increased demand for electricians and other trades. An AI-powered hiring platform reported data center construction workers could earn an average of about $81,800 annually.

A couple miles from the center, the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering maintains partnerships with local companies. Raytheon was the first company to pilot the school’s internship program. The school’s executive director told Fortune the objective is to prepare students for careers that do not yet exist.

Raytheon’s Huntsville site executive said the experiences build skills such as systems thinking and collaboration. A corporate communications analyst at Toyota Alabama said students reacted positively when they learned about young workers who had bought homes and started families with little student debt.