The Workforce Behind the Roadmap

By PETE SINGER, Editor-in-Chief, Semiconductor Digest

For three years, every semiconductor conference has featured some version of the same slide: the industry doesn’t have enough people to build what it’s promising. This month, SEMI’s National Network for Microelectronics Education (NNME), backed by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Commerce, named its first Industry Advisory Committee to turn those warnings into a national strategy, against a projected U.S. shortfall of 127,000 to 157,000 workers by 2030.

What stands out is the committee’s mix. Micron, Intel, Samsung, GlobalFoundries, Apple, AMD, ASML and Lam Research sit alongside two universities and a community college, with Micron’s Janine Rush-Byers as chair and SEMI’s Shari Liss among the workforce representatives. The same approach is playing out in New York, where NY Creates and Micron launched a three-year apprenticeship pilot to help staff Micron’s megafab in Clay, aiming to convert at least 70% of participants into Micron employees.

It’s a small number of apprentices against a six-figure shortfall, but it reflects the idea NNME is trying to scale: pair the companies that need workers with the schools already training them. That convergence will be on display at SEMICON West in San Francisco, Oct. 13–15, where workforce gets equal billing with the technology roadmap.

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