A group of seven Toyota Corolla bodies painted by students from the Limestone County Career Technical Center are now being used at the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing U.S.A. assessment center on West Governor's Drive in Huntsville.

Every production member hired for the new Mazda Toyota Manufacturing U.S.A. plant in Limestone County won’t be selected solely on the basis of a strong resume or winning personality.

Each worker will also be assessed on skill sets and how he or she performs on a number of graded tasks at an assessment center operated jointly by MTMUSA and Alabama Industrial Development Training, or AIDT. MTMUSA officials pulled back the curtain on the center Wednesday for select members of the media, who also had the chance to try the assessment activities.

The assessment center, located just off West Governor’s Drive in Huntsville, is just one component of MTMUSA’s primary goal — the hiring of 4,000 salaried workers, production leaders and production team members. Officials acknowledge there will be some challenges associated with that goal, especially considering low unemployment numbers in the Tennessee Valley.

“There are a lot of nuances and challenges to this project,” said Jamie Hall, a staffing advisor for MTMUSA who has been with Toyota for 23 years. “We are projecting we’ll need 40,000 applications to fill the 3,000 (production) jobs.”

That number is based on a 7-10% projected pass rate.

Company officials initially announced the $1.6 billion plant would make 300,000 vehicles per year when production begins in spring 2021. It was announced in July, however, the plant would not manufacture the Toyota Corolla but instead a yet-to-be-named SUV. A Mazda crossover model will also be manufactured at the facility.

About 120 employees have been hired so far, but those hires are primarily office and management staff. Thirteen production team leaders have also been hired and are now receiving training in Japan on culture, working on an automotive assembly line, and understanding their role as a team leader. Another group of team leaders will go to Japan in April.

Visit https://www.findabetterjob.com/MazdaToyota to see current job openings and learn more about the company.