Huntsville high school and Toyota launch industrial maintenance training program as skilled trades offer $40+ hourly wages amid AI-driven white-collar job displacement

Huntsville Center for Technology (HCT), a $40 million facility, opened with 700 students receiving industry-standard training through an 'Inditech' program developed with Toyota Alabama and supported by a $1 million investment from Toyota's charitable endowment. The school sends off its first graduates this spring.

Inditech trains students for industrial maintenance roles where, according to instructor Jack Crowley, workers can earn over $40 an hour with a two-year degree and a couple years of experience, requiring little to no student debt.

The U.S. faces a skilled trades shortage: the National Association of Manufacturers reports the U.S. needs about 1.9 million manufacturing workers by 2033, and Ford CEO Jim Farley has said the country is short 600,000 factory workers and 500,000 construction workers. Meanwhile, a looming shortage of skilled tradespeople risks costing the U.S. $1 trillion a year according to some estimates.