How to break the semiconductor talent crisis in Taiwan?

The industrial cluster is complete, the output value is rising year by year, and there are many giant companies... After more than 40 years of development, Taiwan has become an important pole in the global semiconductor industry.

Under the guise of prosperity, the talent problem has always been a hidden worry for Taiwan's semiconductor industry. Many years ago, this issue has attracted attention and was called the "quiet crisis". In recent years, under the impact of strong challenges from the United States, Japan, and South Korea and the rapid rise of mainland China, the talent problem has increasingly attracted the attention of the Taiwanese authorities and the industry.

Today, Taiwan's industry, government and academia are strengthening their collaboration and focusing on talent cultivation in universities. Various training policies have also been intensively launched this year, with the intention of devoting "the whole island's strength" to improving the quantity and quality of talents in order to be invincible in future high-tech competition.

High-level talent shortage: unable to recruit and retain PhDs

In recent years, affected by the low birth rate crisis, Taiwan’s universities have generally encountered a shortage of students. Since 2013, the number of graduates has been decreasing year by year.

According to data released by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, the number of college graduates in 2012 were: Doctors (4,241), Masters (60,218), and Undergraduates (226,799). The number of graduates in 2020 were: Doctors (3,276), Masters (54,919), and Undergraduates (206,257), marking the largest decrease since statistics were collected.

This situation may worsen as Taiwan's population experiences negative growth for the first time in 2020. Taiwan's Ministry of Education predicts that the number of college graduates in Taiwan will maintain a negative growth trend in the next decade.

Especially in Taiwan's semiconductor field, which values ​​high-level talents in R&D, such as masters and doctoral students, even top universities are facing the embarrassment of insufficient recruitment and a sharp decline in the number of graduates.

Taking Taiwan’s top four universities, National Taiwan University, National Cheng Kung University, National Tsing Hua University, and National Chiao Tung University (hereinafter referred to as NTUC, TCTU, and NCTU) as examples, the number of doctoral graduates in science and engineering decreased by 29.6% from 2014 to 2018.

In addition, Taiwanese students are less willing to pursue doctoral studies. According to statistics, the enrollment rate of the above four universities has been only 70% to 80% in recent years. The semiconductor field, which is the most promising field in the electrical engineering department of a famous Taiwanese university, enrolled 31 doctoral students last year, but only 13 of them applied.

A person in Taiwan's semiconductor industry predicts that Taiwan's semiconductor industry will face a shortage of PhD talent in 2030.

"TSMC will need 250 doctoral students every year in five years, but currently the three universities in Taiwan, Tsinghua University, and Jiaotong University only have about 210 doctoral graduates in semiconductor-related majors each year. TSMC alone is not enough, let alone other companies?" the person said.

As for the reasons for the sharp decline in the number of doctoral students, Taiwanese media once analyzed and pointed out that the two main reasons are, on the one hand, worrying about not being able to support themselves, and on the other hand, worrying about missing out on the golden period of career development.

The above-mentioned Taiwanese semiconductor industry insider introduced that a doctoral student only receives a subsidy of around NT$10,000 per month during a 5-6 year study period. Not only can he not support himself, he may also have to ask his parents for money. This is much less than the salary of about NT$50,000 to NT$60,000 for an engineer with a bachelor's or master's degree. During this period, he will also miss out on opportunities for promotion and awards in the company.

Regarding the salary of doctoral students, Jiwei.com has learned about the situation in some microelectronics colleges in mainland China. Although it depends on the specific disciplines and project topics, it can basically be guaranteed to be around RMB 3,000-5,000 (NT$12,000-20,000) per month. Doctoral students in famous universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences will earn more than NT$20,000.

In addition, only 20% of the doctoral students trained in Taiwan's universities enter the industry, and as many as 60% remain in universities or research departments. Only a few go to industries that need the most research and development. This is also a major problem faced by the industry.

Another person in Taiwan's semiconductor industry said that the essence of Taiwan's semiconductor industry's lack of talent is the shortage of population. The talent that Taiwan lacks most is not people in process manufacturing, but people in system and IC design. For this type of talent, it is not only a matter of training, but also a matter of ensuring that they are retained after training.

"This requires multi-faceted efforts from industry, academia, and the government to increase the attractiveness of studying for a doctorate, such as providing better subsidies, adding scholarships, and guaranteeing job opportunities. At the same time, it is also necessary to assist graduates to apply their knowledge, adapt to the high-pressure and high-intensity pace of the semiconductor industry, and keep talents in industrial development." The person emphasized.

The "Pioneer Training Program" was launched intensively this year

Talent is a challenge that Taiwan's semiconductor industry has faced for many years, which is called the "quiet crisis". In recent years, especially against the backdrop of strong challenges from the United States, Japan and South Korea, and the "high-paying poaching" triggered by the rapid rise of mainland China, this issue has received increasing attention from the Taiwanese authorities and the industry.

In order to prevent the loss of semiconductor talents, Taiwan has, on the one hand, tightened the channels for local talents to seek employment in the mainland (such as the "recruitment ban" issued recently). On the other hand, it has introduced a number of policies to focus on improving the number and level of semiconductor talents in colleges and universities. This year, related project plans have entered an intensive start-up period.

For example, in 2020, Taiwan's "Ministry of Science and Technology" introduced the "Key Industry High-level Talent Training Program", planning to invest NT$1.546 billion within five years to establish 3-5 semiconductor R&D centers, invest in semiconductor cutting-edge technology research, and strengthen semiconductor R&D technical talent training and reserves, with the goal of cultivating 2,000 high-level semiconductor talents and 400 doctoral reserve talents.

This policy, similar to the "pairing" approach between mainland universities and enterprises, focuses on joint research and development of forward-looking technologies and is expected to be launched in the second half of this year.

In addition, the Taiwan Ministry of Education has proposed the "Regulations on Industry-University Cooperation and Talent Cultivation Innovation in Key Fields" (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations), planning to establish "Semiconductor Colleges" in the four top universities of "Taiwan, Chengfu, Tsinghua, and Jiaotong", each of which will train 100 high-level talents each year, including 80 doctors and 20 masters, and add 400 masters and doctors to the industry each year. The government provides NT$200 million to each school each year, and enterprises provide NT$400 million, training a total of nearly 5,000 semiconductor "pioneers" in 12 years.

According to the plan, the "Semiconductor Colleges" of four universities will start recruiting students in September this year. The deans of the colleges will be concurrently served by the vice presidents of the schools, and well-known industry figures will serve as consultants. According to Jiwei.com, Lin Benjian, former vice general manager of R&D at TSMC, may serve as a consultant for the Semiconductor College of National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. After retiring from TSMC in 2015, Lin Benjian has been a visiting professor at Tsinghua University.

It is worth noting that the regulations clearly stipulate that unless the students agree, companies or schools may not force students to work in cooperative companies after graduation, or use this as a graduation condition. In addition, the regulations prohibit universities in Taiwan from cooperating with mainland Chinese companies, and the source of funds cannot be from mainland China.

A person familiar with the situation told reporters that, in name, the "Semiconductor Colleges" established by Taiwan's universities are similar to the exemplary Microelectronics Colleges and Integrated Circuit Colleges in mainland China, but relatively speaking, semiconductor studies in mainland universities are still subordinate to the university system, focusing on the integration of curriculum settings with industrial practices and teaching links such as "bottleneck" field majors, and have begun preliminary explorations in industrial practices such as internships.

Since the semiconductor colleges in Taiwan's universities are funded by the industry, they are more closely integrated with the industry, and many restrictions can be relaxed. For example, independent financial accounting, relaxed personnel recruitment qualifications, and the duration of study, etc. In addition, in terms of additional teachers, teacher salaries, master's and doctoral treatment subsidies, internships and thesis research can be integrated with the industry, etc., they will carry out corresponding talent training plans according to the requirements of the industry, design better course content and features to attract students to apply, and match them with employment opportunities, etc., hoping to help enhance the attractiveness of the semiconductor industry to high-level talents in Taiwan's universities.