TEMPE — Community colleges across the country, including Rio Salado College in Tempe, are racing to train semiconductor technicians as chipmakers warn of a looming labor shortage, according to a report published by ABC15.
Rio Salado offers a tuition-free, three-month crash course that gives students a chance to interview with major Arizona chipmakers. One student, 23-year-old Ethan Mock, signed up after hearing about it on the radio while finishing his fifth year at Northern Arizona University with more than $100,000 in debt. Two months later, he was running advanced equipment used to process silicon wafers.
“I do want to be in a booming industry,” Mock said.
His classmates included a 64-year-old middle school teacher, a laid-off software developer in his 50s, gig workers without degrees and younger students looking for an alternative to a four-year degree.
Chipmakers have poured more than $800 billion into new U.S. plants, encouraged by the 2022 CHIPS Act, but the industry could be short as many as 157,000 full-time workers by 2030, said Shari Liss, who leads talent initiatives at the chip industry group SEMI.
Texas, Ohio, California, New York and Arizona are expected to see the most acute shortages, experts said. “What keeps me up at night is: how are we going to fill all of these roles?” Liss said.
Federal agencies and companies including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Samsung and SK Hynix are funding the training partnerships, helping schools buy equipment and shape their programs.
Sources: ABC15. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: U.S. Department of Energy / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
