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SEMI Scales Up Workforce Programs as
U.S. Talent Gap Nears 200,000
When SEMI asks member companies what could hold back their
growth, the number one answer is
talent, Joe Stockunas, president of
SEMI Americas, said at Monday’s
SEMICON West press conference.
SEMI is expanding its workforce
programs in the U.S. and abroad to
help close the gap. “Our industry
in the U.S. is going to be almost
200,000 people short in the next few
years,” said Shari Liss, SEMI’s vice
president of global workforce development and initiatives.
Figure 1. High school students
from Taiwan and the U.S. at
SEMI’s inaugural Global Schools
Academy. Source: SEMI.
NNME regional nodes
Much of the U.S. effort runs
through the National Network
for Microelectronics Education
(NNME), a $200 million, five-year
CHIPS-funded initiative with the
National Science Foundation and
the Department of Commerce.
The SEMI Foundation serves as
its national hub and operator. In
June, NNME announced its first
four regional nodes, which bring
together more than 325 partners from
industry, education, workforce and
economic development, and K-12
to build industry-aligned training
programs. Each node received a $20
million commitment over five years.
As operator, SEMI built the
ChipPath career platform, is developing SemiSphere for sharing
curriculum and best practices, and
tracks how the nodes perform against
their commitments. NNME is also
launching communities of practice
and a Career Lab series of in-person
events on college campuses to
connect students and job seekers
16 | Wednesday, October 14
directly with the industry.
NSF acting director Brian Stone
is scheduled to announce the next
phase of NNME on the main stage
on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 10:05 a.m.
Liss said the federal commitment
remains $200 million but acknowledged the scale of the need. “We
know it’s a drop compared to what
we need from an industry perspective,” she said. “It’s going to take
all of us together to build something
successful.”
Credentials and ChipPath
The SEMI Foundation has introduced three industry-validated
credentials. An Equipment
Maintenance Technician certification
combines a 100-question knowledge
assessment ($70) with a 50-minute
electro-pneumatic systems practical, and micro-credentials ($50
each) cover cleanroom operations
and safety and fab maintenance,
tools and metrology. Credentials
in vacuum technology and gas and
chemical distribution systems are
planned.
ChipPath now lists about 199,000
job postings from 1,280 SEMI
member employers. A new employer
dashboard launching this week lets
companies feature priority openings,
search candidates by location, skills,
education, certifications and experience, invite job seekers to apply
and share candidates with their
hiring teams.
India, Taiwan and beyond
At SEMICON India, SEMI and the
India Deep Tech Alliance launched
the India Semiconductor Academy
to create a national framework for
semiconductor talent development
aligned with industry-defined skills
and credentials. At SEMICON
Taiwan, SEMI signed agreements
with the Foundation for International
Cooperation in Higher Education
of Taiwan, Taiwan’s Ministry of
Education and the American Institute
in Taiwan to give American students
hands-on training opportunities in
Taiwan.
SEMI’s inaugural Global Schools
Academy brought high school students from Taiwan and the U.S.
together for five days on semiconductors, AI and sustainability
(FIGURE 1), and its new Chip the
Future Challenge is a global innovation and research competition for
university and graduate students,
with cash prizes.
Attendees can see many of these programs at the Workforce Pavilion on the
show floor, and talent will be a focus
of Thursday’s CEO Summit.
www.semiconductordigest.com
