Although they broke ground for the plant just last October and aren’t planning on having it in production until early 2014, last week Mazda started training some of its employees for Mazda Motor Manufacturing de Mexico S.A. de C.V. (MMMdM) at its headquarters in Hiroshima.

This first group consists of 12 people. These will be managers in the production departments of the plant. Areas of instruction include Mazda’s manufacturing systems, quality control, and leadership.

Mazda plans to host some 180 employees from Mexico between now and start of production. Some employees, prior to the training at Mazda HQ, will be participating in a six-week Japanese language and culture program organized by the Japan Overseas Human Resources and Industry Development Association.

The plant will produce both the Mazda2 and Mazda3 models.

Clearly Mazda believes that training is vital to getting cars with that certain Zoom-Zoom.