Lisa Deck recently celebrated the first 11 graduates of the 4T Academy at Toyota Mississippi. Deck serves as the program manager of education and workforce for Purdue Polytechnic's Indiana Manufacturing Competitiveness Center (IN-MaC).
The historic graduating class received conditional full-time job offers at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi (TMMM). TMMM invested $2 million to launch the program for students from New Albany High School and Union County High School in Mississippi.
Deck champions the 4T Academy model as a core component of IN-MaC's Pathways system.System The Pathways System connects local industries, communities, and school districts to build direct employment pipelines. IN-MaC tailors each Pathway to the specific culture and workforce needs of the local community. “This model gives students the opportunity to learn in a real manufacturing environment, develop both technical and professional skills, and make an informed decision about their future,” Deck said. “At the same time, employers gain an intentional way to develop local talent based on the skills, expectations and culture of their workplace.”
The 4T Academy provides students with paid internships and supervised on-site job training. Students work on the manufacturing floor one day a week as juniors. They increase their time to four days a week by their final high school semester.
Deck helped develop and scale the original 4T Academy at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana (TMMI) and later expanded the effort to Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virgina (TMMWV), and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK). The Indiana initiative partnered with local school districts and achieved a nearly 90 percent success rate in placing students into jobs.
“The inaugural 4T Academy graduating class at Toyota Mississippi represents what is possible when employers, schools and communities share responsibility for preparing young people for the workforce. These students are graduating with more than technical skills-they have gained real-world experience, professional confidence and a clear pathway into a high-demand career. Seeing a model we first developed in Indiana successfully adapted in Mississippi demonstrates the power of the Purdue IN-MaC Pathways System and its potential to strengthen local talent pipelines across the country,” Deck said.
The model continues to attract attention from regional education partners as it expands nationally. Organizations actively use the growing 4T Academy network to share resources and observe successful training models. The Education Alliance in West Virginia recently hosted a visiting team from Mississippi. The Mississippi representatives toured the Toyota West Virginia plant and the local 4T program to observe hands-on manufacturing pathways in action.
Deck's role extends beyond helping individual programs launch. She works across industry, education and community systems to establish common frameworks, share effective practices and build sustainable talent pipelines that can be adapted in different regions.
The 4T Academy demonstrates how the model can move successfully from one community to another while remaining responsive to local needs. It also strengthens Purdue IN-MaC's growing national role in developing education and workforce systems that connect students with meaningful career opportunities and help manufacturers build a skilled, dependable talent pipeline.
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