Talent is in short supply in the semiconductor industry. There is a lack of engineers who work on the design of new chips and the supply far exceeds the demand for professionals in this field. To address this shortage, ARM has just announced the release of the Semiconductor Education Alliance (SEA)an association around which the microchip industry will unite efforts to stimulate new talent.
As Gary Campbell, Executive VP of ARM, has explained, the idea is that Alliance members share resources and knowledge through various forums in a federated and open model, so that teachers, researchers and students can access everything types of resources, collaborate on projects and even access research grants.
Among the initiatives that are already underway within the alliance, it is worth mentioning the provision of ARM educational resources for chip design to its members, using state-of-the-art tools in the field of Electronic Design Automation ( EDA).
In addition, work is underway to develop an open platform for the design of SoCs, which will provide access to the ARM’s latest semiconductor manufacturing technologies and other manufacturers, as well as new distance learning solutions in computer engineering and computer science.
Other companies involved in this alliance include single-board computer maker Arduino, EDA developer Cadence, STMicroelectronics, Synopsys, Semiconductor Research Corporation, Cornell University in New York, Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute, the Council of All India Technical Education and the University of Southampton in the UK. In the case of Spain, the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) has also announced its adhesion to this organization.
A few days ago, the Semiconductor Industry Association of the United States (SIA) issued a report stating that the country’s semiconductor industry faces a shortage of 67,000 technicians and engineers by 2030. This situation could complicate the country complies with the objectives that it has set in its CHIPS Act, by which it commits to invest 52,000 million dollars in the development of this industry. Of course, the situation is similar in Europe,
Similarly, one of the declared objectives of the European Commission is to invest more than 20,000 million euros in the development of companies in this sector in the coming years, and one of the main objectives is to be able to attract new talent and support the rise of a skilled workforce. Even China faces a shortage of about 200,000 industry workers this yearaccording to a Reuters report, citing a position paper from the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA).
And it is that as they assure in Deloitte, more than a million additional qualified workers will be needed worldwide to satisfy the demand of the semiconductor industry.
