Microcredentials Chip Away at Semiconductor Workforce Gap

In 2017, Demis John noticed a staffing problem among the semiconductor companies in Santa Barbara. The area had about 28 small semiconductor companies at the time, many launched from the nanofabrication facility housed at University of California, Santa Barbara, where John works. But as these companies expand, “they are all headhunting the same 10 people, basically,” John says.

“It really was hindering their ability to scale. When you start up a company, you might have five or six highly educated people,” he says. “As [companies] get bigger and they go beyond the research devices, they really need technicians to start making more chips.… That’s where they often had these problems.”

Now, following the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and increasing investment from companies like Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the United States is expecting a shortage of workers who can staff new facilities. In the next few years, tens of thousands of additional skilled workers will be needed across the semiconductor industry; in 2024, McKinsey & Co. estimated a talent gap between 59,000 and 146,000 engineers and technicians before the end of the decade. As the United States invests in reshoring chip manufacturing, the industry faces a dilemma: How can the semiconductor workforce scale to meet the coming demand?

Efforts to develop a strong workforce have grown, for example with government-funded initiatives from the Microelectronics Commons, a U.S. Department of Defense program that established eight hubs across the country to bridge research and manufacturing. (The National Semiconductor Technology Center was also established by the CHIPS Act in part for workforce development. However, in late August, the Commerce Department revoked funding from the nonprofit that was set up to administer the program.) Through a combination of federal programs, state funding, and private-sector partnerships, U.S. colleges and universities are working to increase talent.

To fill the gap, some universities—including UC Santa Barbara—are also offering microcredential programs separate from traditional degree programs. In these bite-size courses, which can be as short as a week or two, future engineers and technicians can gain critical hands-on experience in clean-room fundamentals or an introduction to topics like lithography or etching. Deploying short, standardized, and skill-based courses across the country could be an essential part of building a sustainable U.S. semiconductor workforce.

Developing Microcredentials

UC Santa Barbara launched its clean-room training in 2021, opening the university’s clean room to enrolled students as well as those from outside the university, including community college students and people looking to make a career change. Many universities already have clean rooms where they teach undergraduates about semiconductor fabrication, but students outside of a four-year degree program typically can’t access these facilities to gain the necessary training.

“There’s a big mismatch in culture between companies and city colleges and universities. They all want to solve the same problem, but they don’t actually understand each other’s needs that well,” John says. To him, the importance of these courses is in aligning the needs of the industry, students, and educational institutions.

While developing the UC Santa Barbara course, however, John was surprised to find there was no established educational standard for those wishing to enter the semiconductor workforce outside of a bachelor’s degree.

A student at UC Santa Barbara loads wafers into a machine used for plasma etching. Ben Werner

Since then, he has collaborated with several other institutions and organizations working to implement a microcredential program developed by IEEE in partnership with the University of Southern California (USC) as part of California DREAMS (Defense Ready Electronics and Microdevices Superhub), funded by the DOD. Other programs also offer short training courses, but the standardization IEEE aims to provide is important for ensuring participants’ skills are widely recognized by employers across the country.

Initially, John aimed to address the shortage of technicians to help companies scale up production. But as the courses have expanded elsewhere, it has become clear that the same hands-on experience can be used for engineering students as well.

Students who take these introductory courses may go on to join the workforce or continue in their education to a bachelor’s or advanced degree. “The entire ladder of different workforce exits into the semiconductor industry is really important,” says John. The industry needs operators and technicians, who may seek employment right after high school, as well as Ph.D.-level engineers. “These microcredentials get somebody into the start of that workforce ladder.”

What the Semiconductor Industry Needs

Microcredentials assure employers that applicants have the skills needed to work in their fabs. A common misconception is that companies need students who have already been taught how to build their particular technology. But “it doesn’t matter exactly which specific device you made. What matters is that this person has had the experience of making some real chip,” John says. He compares it to carpentry: Someone who has spent time in a woodshop making furniture may not know how to frame a house, but “all the tools are basically the same. I know they can figure it out.”

So, in addition to specific skills, the course demonstrates a student’s ability to learn the processes—and tolerate the environment. With its loud machines, safety procedures, and protective bunny suits, the clean room isn’t a typical workplace. Having students experience that environment lowers the risk of employers hiring someone who dislikes it.

“It doesn’t matter exactly which specific device you made. What matters is that this person has had the experience of making some real chip.” —Demis John

The course has students spend several days in a clean room, which is more likely than a single clean-room day to filter out participants who wouldn’t last. That’s important for companies that invest a lot of resources in hiring and training new people, notes the University of Washington’s Darick Baker, who serves as acting director of the Washington Nanofabrication Facility, in Seattle.

Can Hands-On Courses Scale Up?

The hands-on experience is a critical part of semiconductor microcredential programs, because companies want employees who are excited about building things. But it also inherently limits how many students can enroll at once. “If I can handle 12 students at a time, maybe there’s the pathway to 100 students a year. But that’s not the numbers we need,” says Baker.

Instead, scalability will likely come from offering courses more frequently, and at more universities. Many universities already have a clean room and courses for university students, John says, so the goal was to make it easy for universities to adapt programs already in place to fit with the microcredential program. This also requires training of the instructors. USC, for example, offers a microcredential for instructors themselves in a “train the trainer” model.

For 10 years, Baker has run clean-room training courses during which students make a diode. He became excited about the possibility of awarding students IEEE’s professional microcredentials as a way to give students an advantage in the job market.

Baker visited USC and UC Santa Barbara to observe their programs and realized they were already quite similar to his. With a few small changes, he could make his program meet the requirements for IEEE microcredentials. His hope is that “somebody can look at that credential and say, maybe this person doesn’t know everything about working at a fab, but they spent one week gowned-up in a bunny suit. They’re not going to quit in that first month because they can’t handle being in the lab.”

Currently, these programs may have significance mostly to local employers. But “nationally, it starts to take meaning when you have a critical mass of universities that are offering these credentials,” says Baker. “The more universities we can get on board with this, the more meaning that credential has.”