Posted on 05/28/2022 1:48:32 AM PDT by blam
To solve the semiconductor shortage, companies now have to deal with a labor shortage…
We have extensively covered how major semiconductor companies have been responding to the global chip shortage over the last couple of years. One of the most notable companies to take action has been TSMC, who is in the process of building a $12 billion chip fab in Arizona, not far from where Intel is expanding their campus.
TSMC’s project is racing to come online by 2024, but there remains a major obstacle for both companies: securing labor. “Simply finding enough workers to build the facilities has already proved a challenge,” according to a new report from Nikkei.
Over 6,000 workers are currently on site trying to get the facility up and running by its targeted 2024 timeline, the report says. While it was tough to find construction workers, finding the skilled technicians necessary to work at a chip plant is proving even tougher.
Kweilin Waller, deputy human services director at the Phoenix Business and Workforce Development Board, commented: “You say ‘semiconductor manufacturing’ [to potential recruits], people look at you like you have two heads. It’s just unfamiliar.”
“I think those students that we are trying to recruit to ultimately become employees don’t know what they don’t know. So even before we give consideration to the seven semiconductor manufacturers that they could work with, they need to understand, ‘What is a semiconductor technician?'” added Daniel Barajas, a careers director at the Maricopa County Community Colleges District.
Intel is trying to tackle the problem by creating a close relationship with The Schools of Engineering at ASU, which have about 27,000 students enrolled.
TSMC doesn’t have the history that Intel does with the university to attract such talent as easily.
Kyle Squires, the school’s dean, said: “Indeed, it’s more of a challenge [for TSMC to attract students]. The informal networking [among students] starts to really grab on.”
One associate professor at ASU said: “TSMC recruiters have been very heavily present on campus. TSMC is presently negotiating with the university for some extended collaborations, both in research and in workforce development, and broader training programs.”
TSMC only had plans of hiring in the U.S. before sending employees to train in Taiwan, but now the company is considering hiring directly from Taiwan, the Nikkei report says. “TSMC is focused on hiring employees, including technicians, locally in the U.S. for our Arizona fab,” a spokesperson said.
Jennifer Mellor, chief innovation officer at the Greater Phoenix Chamber, concluded: “I think TSMC is really trying to get their name known in the market, and they’re actually doing a really good job of trying to connect with different education partners.”
With respect to the semiconductor manufacturing, the subject of this OP, I expect the technician roles to be dominated by life science and chemists. Manufacturing and QC dominated by EE and a smattering of chemists, ME and ChE. Maintenance and support by EE, computer engineering and ME and a few ChE. Engineering Department to be heavy on EE, computer specialists and ME plus a few ChE.
History, psychology and political science majors need not apply. Starbucks is down the road.
Well they aren’t very smart then. Trying to partner with the political morass of a state university that produces uneducated morons is not a winning strategy.
“ Hey, chips need silicon and there’s a lot of sand in that desert.”
The Phoenix metro is actually known as the ‘Silicon Desert’ though not because of sand but because it’s a fast growing tech hub. (No sand in Silicon Valley either)
Intel has fallen behind TSMC . Apple’s M1 series of chips (manufactured by TSMC) are kicking butt and Intel has nothing like it and won’t for years.
Comment tongue in cheek. Silicon used in chips has to be super low in impurities and most normal desert sands wouldn’t be usable/practical for processing.
“Kweilin Waller, deputy human services director at the Phoenix Business and Workforce Development Board, commented: “You say ‘semiconductor manufacturing’ [to potential recruits], people look at you like you have two heads. It’s just unfamiliar.”
Now thats just how well a job “educators” have done!!! Intel has been there for YEARS!
From India ?
“TSMC doesn’t have the history that Intel does with the university to attract such talent as easily.”
Has TSMC ever trained ANYBODY for a job?
Ever sought out partnerships with training organizations/schools?
Nah, just import the low-cost, VISA begging un-americans.
In Columbus, Ohio site of the second Intel Plant “Community Leaders” are demanding that Intel guarantee they will hire workers from the inter-city and the disadvantaged.
The first shovel of dirt hasn’t been turned and the race hustlers are already looking for a payoff.
It has been discovered that Arizona is California thirty years ago, and the great land rush is on. Problem won’t be lack of water but lack of ability to keep Democrats from rigging Arizona’s election system, the way they did in California after the shock recall of Gray Davis in 2002.
The Tampa Bay region of Florida would have been a better choice...
Yeah, but it's a "dry heat."
No hurricanes in Arizona. And the chip making plants use less water than golf courses.
TSMC otherwise known as Taiwan Semiconductor, was founded in Taiwan. It never “went overseas,” it began there.
They don’t make chips out of sand.
See #26.
Made from quartz mined from quartz mines. Although many sands have a large quartz content, way too “dirty” with other stuff to be practical for producing silicon wafters.
“I keep telling my granddaughters that STEM is their best bet to get a free ride for college.”
and subsequent employment and financial opportunities ...
“History, psychology and political science majors need not apply.”
don’t they need a few folks to clean the office floors and empty the trash cans?
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