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Taiwan faces talent shortage in semiconductor industry

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Synopsys ( SNPS ) hosts bilingual camps to attract overseas talent

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Universities launch programs to boost semiconductor

education

By Wen-Yee Lee

TAIPEI, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Dressed in a white protective

suit and face mask, Nicolas Chueh listened intently as a guide

introduced a series of silver machines used in manufacturing

Taiwan's cutting-edge semiconductors.

The 16-year-old was among students from eight countries at the

summer camp staged to raise interest in Taiwan's most vital

industry amid a fast-declining birth rate that could leave tens

of thousands of critical jobs vacant.

"I myself really enjoy playing video games. So I'm really

just always using these semiconductor products," said Chueh,

whose parents enrolled him after he expressed interest.

The camp, organised by U.S. chip design software firm

Synopsys ( SNPS ), is among several such events staged by chip

companies and Taiwanese universities in recent years as demand

for semiconductors, which power most electronics and AI servers,

surges across the globe.

But for the first time this year, Synopsys ( SNPS ), which has

significant operations in Taiwan to be closer to the

semiconductor supply chain, hosted the events both in Mandarin

and English as Taiwan searches for overseas talent.

"There is an urgent need to strengthen STEM education from

an early age," said Robert Li, Synopsys's ( SNPS ) Taiwan chairman, who

believes the camps can increase interest in the chip industry

and help prime some of its future leaders.

"That is why we are launching this initiative in Taiwan,

where its strength in semiconductors meets the challenge of

demographic decline. Taken together, it is clear we must act

here first."

Given limitations posed by Taiwan's ageing population, Synopsys ( SNPS )

is also considering hosting camps internationally to spur

interest in chip making and designing, he added. The company

charges T$33,000 ($1,103) for the English versions and T$10,900

for Mandarin.

Chueh, a dual Taiwan-Belgian national who lives in

Singapore, said he views semiconductors as an attractive career

choice.

"I want to lean into it to some extent because I think it

will be crucial in the future with AI."

SLUMPING BIRTH RATE

Taiwan, which has a population of around 23 million, holds

outsized influence over the global semiconductor supply chain,

thanks to its chip companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor

Manufacturing Co ( TSM ), the world's largest contract

chipmaker, MediaTek, and UMC.

Any decline in the industry poses an existential threat to

Taiwan, which faces the threat of invasion from Beijing and

draws much of its global significance from the chip behemoths.

But job openings in the semiconductor sector have risen from

19,401 in the second quarter of 2020 to 33,725 in the same

period this year, according to 104 Corporation, a local human

resources firm.

The industry is grappling with a shortage of both highly

skilled professionals, such as IC design and semiconductor R&D

engineers, and essential production staff, including operators

and assembly technicians.

Filling those jobs locally is becoming harder each year as

Taiwan's annual number of births has dropped from over 210,000

in 2014 to around 135,000 in 2024, according to government

statistics. STEM graduates have also fallen by around 15% in

that period, Ministry of Education statistics showed.

"Growth in Taiwan's semiconductor industry has been quite rapid,

faster than what our schools can produce in terms of engineering

talent each year," said Leuh Fang, chairman of Vanguard

International Semiconductor, a Taiwan-based chipmaker

affiliated with TSMC.

'THE FUTURE WORKFORCE'

Last year, the National Taiwan University launched a global

undergraduate semiconductor program for foreign students, which

included Mandarin courses to help them reach the proficiency

needed to stay and work in Taiwan.

The program now enrols over 40 students from more than 10

countries.

TSMC also began looking toward foreign talent by throwing

its weight behind a program in Germany's Saxony state, which

would send German students to study for a semester at Taiwanese

universities before interning at TSMC.

Other initiatives are attempting to create interest among

children as young as 10.

Taiwan's National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU)

launched an outreach program in July, backed by TSMC, aimed at

making chip science fun through interactive teaching tools and

online games.

"The issue everyone is discussing now is where the future

workforce will come from," said NYCU President Chi-Hung Lin.

"If they're curious now, they won't reject it later and some

may even grow to like this kind of work."