Community colleges expand semiconductor training for new U.S. fabs

By Sophie Lindqvist

U.S. chipmakers have poured more than $800 billion into new domestic semiconductor fabrication plants, encouraged by the 2022 CHIPS Act. That investment has created a parallel labor problem: new plants need technicians who can maintain and service production equipment.

SEMI’s Shari Liss said the U.S. semiconductor industry could face a shortage of as many as 157,000 full-time workers by 2030. Liss leads SEMI’s talent initiatives and manages a workforce program funded by the CHIPS Act. The figure is a forecast, not a confirmed vacancy count.

Experts expect Texas, Ohio, California, New York and Arizona to encounter the most acute semiconductor labor shortages. Those gaps could stall production plans and constrain U.S. ambitions to lead in artificial intelligence.

“What keeps me up at night is: how are we going to fill all of these roles?” Liss said. “The task is daunting.”

Why are community colleges moving faster?

The National Science Foundation, TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix fund partnerships between industry and community colleges. Governments and plant companies help local schools buy equipment, expand access and advise instructors on urgent skills. Their backing supports a network of short-term, hands-on programs intended to place entry-level technicians more quickly.

Rio Salado College in Tempe, Arizona, shortened courses that once ran as long as two years. After consulting TSMC and Intel, it opened a free, 12-week program to the public this fall. About a dozen students are enrolled, learning skills needed inside and around a fabrication plant.

An earlier Rio Salado program for veterans began about 15 years ago, when no Arizona community college offered semiconductor manufacturing. At that time, Intel required a two-year associate degree for entry-level jobs.

Ethan Mock, 23, had worked part time at a gym while taking on more than $100,000 in debt. He completed his fifth and final year at Northern Arizona University this year, studying business administration, before looking beyond that major for a stable career.

He heard about Rio Salado’s tuition-free, three-month crash course on the radio in July and enrolled without a semiconductor background. The program offered interviews with major Arizona chipmakers.

Two months later, Mock operated advanced machinery in protective gear, turning thin silicon slices into chips used in smartphones, robotics and data centers. “I do want to be in a booming industry,” he said. “It was very exciting to get right into the meat and bones of the semiconductor manufacturing, which is really cool.”

His cohort includes a 64-year-old middle school teacher, a laid-off software developer in his 50s, gig workers without degrees and younger students considering alternatives to a traditional college degree.

What do the short courses teach?

Students first learn fabrication procedures through virtual-reality headsets. They then receive about 20 hours of hands-on training in Arizona State University’s clean-room labs, wearing full protective suits and goggles that keep dust off equipment and raw materials.

At advanced fabs, technicians repeat hundreds of tightly controlled steps, building microscopic layers that form tiny electronic components and connections on silicon wafers, said Trevor Thornton, an Arizona State University electrical engineering professor teaching semiconductor engineering. Students practice those procedures in clean rooms.

“We’ve been able to expand the program to bring more and more of these community college students to the clean rooms, which makes it easier for the industry to train them,” Thornton said. “It’s good for everybody.” Some students use the pathway to pursue engineering degrees at ASU.

Austin Community College in Texas and West Valley College in Saratoga, California, offer similar shorter routes to company interviews. SEMI says more than 200 community colleges and universities nationwide have coordinated with the group to prepare workers as new plants come online.

“These short hands-on programs lead to well-paying local jobs at the biggest tech companies,” said Rick Vaughn, who manages technology and engineering courses at Rio Salado. “Without a four-year commitment, they’re not accumulating any debt. And this becomes a really credible path into this growing industry.”

Can the training pipeline meet fab demand?

The central caveat is speed. Whether accelerated programs have grown fast enough to meet hiring demand at TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix remains unresolved.

While scouting locally, those companies are bringing hundreds of experienced engineers and technicians from Taiwan and South Korea to run new facilities in Arizona, Texas and Indiana. Those transfers provide immediate operating knowledge, but they do not prove domestic training has scaled.

“They are here to train Americans,” said Pearl Chang Esau, an education and workforce consultant for TSMC Arizona. TSMC’s $265 billion development project in northern Phoenix, the largest foreign direct investment in U.S. history, is expected to create 25,000 jobs over the next decade or so.

Chang Esau estimated that half would be locally hired technicians, a forecast rather than a completed hiring count.

“Because advanced semiconductor production has really only occurred in Asia, there’s an element to this that’s new and unprecedented,” Chang Esau said. “It has to be handled with care.”

As Mock took notes on workplace expectations and clean-room protocols, he considered starting as a technician and combining frontline experience with his degree in a few years. Vaughn had told students that precision, safety and reliability matter inside a fab.

Near his home in a Phoenix suburb, dozens of cranes rise over TSMC’s expanding complex, while supporting businesses move into the metro area. “There are so many avenues,” Mock said. “It’s really endless.”

The next test is whether short courses can supply enough entry-level technicians as new fabs in Arizona, Texas and Indiana come online.