Employee satisfaction scores when comparing semiconductor companies, technology companies and automobile companies. Data: Glassdoor
This trend is getting worse due to the fact that people who intend to quit not only leave the company but they also leave the industry they are pursuing.
In Australia, India, Singapore, UK and US, between April 2020 and April 2022, only 36% of semiconductor industry workers quit their jobs and took new jobs in the same industry. For the remaining 64% of workers leaving their jobs, they choose to move to another industry or retire and leave the labor market.
Not stopping here, psychological problems are also a barrier that causes workers to leave the semiconductor industry. Data from recruitment network Glassdoor shows that, compared to automakers and “Big Tech” groups, semiconductor companies are not rated highly by workers for their balance between work and personal life. . The welfare factor and corporate culture of semiconductor companies are also inferior.
The above reasons are the reasons why semiconductor human resources globally are scarce. Despite huge demand for semiconductors, the industry is struggling in a severe staffing crisis.
Scene inside a semiconductor factory. Photo: TSMC
Opportunity to ‘export semiconductor human resources’ to Vietnam?
Exchange with VietNamNet, Prof. Dr. Tran Xuan Tu, Director of the Institute of Information Technology (Hanoi National University), said that the world is currently lacking semiconductor human resources, both in manufacturing and design. Working in shifts, harsh working environment; The shortage of STEM graduates to supplement and replace will create a large gap in the labor market. In that context, along with India, Vietnam is considered a country with the potential to be a net exporter of technical workers.
According to the National Innovation Center (NIC, Ministry of Planning & Investment), Vietnam possesses an abundant workforce in related engineering and technology fields. This is the potential and opportunity to develop the semiconductor industry ecosystem.
Prof. Dr. Tran Xuan Tu said that, compared to other IT fields, the semiconductor industry has some specialties. If making software, students only need to care about the underlying software and hardware. However, when it comes to hardware, you must clearly understand how the hardware works.
A group of students from Hanoi National University participated in the Southeast Asia semiconductor circuit design competition. Photo: Institute of IT
Design is currently mainly automated, using hardware description languages (essentially software) to describe the design. Semiconductor workers must have software programming skills, data structures and algorithms,…
“Besides hardware and software knowledge, semiconductor makers must also have application knowledge. Another problem is to integrate a lot of different knowledge to solve practical problems. This is a difficulty for hardware designers and IC designers”, explained the Director of the Institute of Information Technology.
After the training process, students must meet certain conditions to participate in the semiconductor industry labor market; such as: skills, qualifications; English and cultural adaptation.
This expert believes that Vietnam may have a great advantage in labor resources, plus young people’s passion for technology. However, if you massively train semiconductor human resources, it will be difficult to find output.
In that context, Vietnam needs to actively attract FDI enterprises to solve the output problem when promoting human resource training in the semiconductor industry. On the other hand, we should also consider training and fostering high-quality semiconductor human resources, capable of working in a global environment.
Lesson 2: Is it feasible to train chip design engineers for 3-6 months?
