U.S. semiconductor companies face varied challenges in sustaining a well qualified semiconductor workforce equipped to continue the transformative innovations already under way-from sparking an early passion for science and engineering, through higher education, to retaining the best and the brightest from the world over and insuring that our human resource policies and practices are as advanced and current as our technology.
SIA Semiconductor Workforce Strategy Committee (SWSC)
This committee was established in 1998 to address a shortage of high tech workers. Over the past decade the SWSC's activities have evolved and today money, resources and efforts are directed to four key areas:
- Understanding and impacting the current and anticipated supply, quality, and diversity of high tech workers needed by the industry.
- Meeting the need for improved math and science achievement in the K-16 grades, with a focus on improving the quality of 6th -12th grade math and science teachers.
- Understanding and addressing the most important Human Resource/Workforce issues affecting our member companies through discussion, benchmarking and best practice sharing.
- Effective public policy and lobbying efforts on issues that affect the semiconductor workforce.
Addressing the Shortage of Future Engineering Talent
The SIA is one 15 prominent business organizations that launched "
Tapping America's Potential," in July 2005 seeking to d
ouble the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates with bachelor's degrees by 2015. America faces challenges throughout the pipeline – American high school students not performing as well as students from our trading partners in international standardized tests, and fewer American students are seeking advanced degrees in engineering. Meanwhile, other nations are emphasizing science and engineering education.
South Korea, with one-sixth of our population, graduates as many engineers as the U.S., and by 2010, if current trends continue, more than 90 percent of all scientists and engineers in the world will be living in Asia.
In its 2008 update, “Tapping America’s Potential: Gaining Momentum, Losing Ground” the coalition noted that data available since the TAP report was issued show that recent U.S. STEM bachelor’s degrees awarded fall short of what will be required to reach 400,000 by 2015.
The business community has been encouraged by Congressional authorizations to expand science and engineering research and STEM education programs that will make STEM majors more attractive to undergraduates, but actual appropriations for these programs have fallen short.
Improving the Supply and Quality of Electrical Engineers for the Industry
SIA has partnered with the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) on a nationwide Chip Design Challenge to increase visibility and interest in the analog and DSP skill areas. AMD, Cadence, LSI, Mentor Graphics, National Semiconductor, NVIDIA, and Texas Instruments havejoined SIA in providing over $70,000 awards. In addition, through the generous donation from Jazz Semiconductor, eight winners from phase one of the competition will have their designs fabricated at Jazz's foundry in Newport Beach, California. A total of 47 teams from 28 universities with 110 students participated in Phase 1 of the contest.
Training the Best Technician Workforce
Meeting the rapidly changing workforce needs of the semiconductor industry is a key focus of the Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center (MATEC), an organization supported by the National Science Foundation. For over a decade, SIA has been a close partner with MATEC in providing curriculum as well as faculty training and development for semiconductor manufacturing programs at nearly 100 two- and four-year institutions nationwide. MATEC has developed more than 50 curriculum modules addressing all aspects of semiconductor manufacturing.
Focus on K-12 Teacher and Student Achievements
Our member companies are focused on improving the overall quality of our country's K-12 education system. In the last three years alone our member companies have invested more than a staggering $275 million in these programs, reaching over 310,000 teachers and more than 14.5 million students. Details of these innovative programs can be found in our annual K-12 Catalog, featuring current educational initiatives, best practices and available resources among SIA member companies.
Tomorrow's graduate students who will usher in the revolutionary technologies made possible by nanotechnology are in junior high school today. Government has the primary responsibility for ensuring that these students have the math and science preparation to allow them to take advantage of nanotechnology's opportunities, but industry is contributing importantly to the effort.
SIA's collective efforts, along with others who understand the critical importance of K-12 student achievement in science and math, have increased funding for the national Math and Science Partnership program from $228 million in fiscal year 2003 to $290 million in fiscal 2004. The program is an important component of the "No Child Left Behind" Act, passed into law in January 2002.
SIA has also actively supported implementation of the America COMPETES Act of 2005. The law calls for a doubling of the NSF NIST, and Department of Energy Office of Science budgets over ten years, and includes the Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Talent program, which offers competitive grants to universities and colleges to increase and retain the number of students completing degrees in these fields, and the Robert Noyce Scholarship program, offering grants to institutions of higher learning to encourage students in math, science, and engineering to pursue K-12 teaching careers.
The significant challenge of preparing students for the opportunities offered by tomorrow's technologies requires that industry do its part. We are continuing our partnership with Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) in sponsoring Workforce Development Institutes for high school teachers. The two-day institutes are educational programs for high school teachers to learn math and science experiments and teaching techniques to help engage students in pursuing technical degrees and semiconductor careers. Member companies are sending teacher to these programs with excellent results.
Attracting and Retaining Top Foreign Nationals
Currently 51 percent of master’s and 71 percent of Ph.D. graduates in electrical and electronic engineering from U.S. universities are foreign nationals. U.S, companies must have the ability to hire and keep this talent if they are to thrive in competitive global markets. It makes no sense for the U.S. to force these talented individuals to leave the U.S. to work against U.S. companies after they are trained in the U.S.
In 2007 the U.S. Senate tried to pass a comprehensive immigration package but failed. Given the difficult political issues surrounding changes to immigration policy, SIA concluded that it was all the more important for parties with different viewpoints to come together and seek common understanding. Consequently, the SIA approached the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – United States of America (IEEE-USA), an organization long at odds with SIA on the H-1B visa issue, and found common ground on the value of allowing highly-talented individuals to get permanent resident status (green cards) in an expedited manner, rather than having to wait from 5-10 years as many do under the current system.
The SIA and IEEE-USA agreed to jointly support legislation that will strengthen America’s high tech workforce by:
- Raising the employment-based immigrant visa cap, including an exemption for foreign professionals with advanced degrees in STEM fields from U.S. universities
- Creating a new foreign student visa category to allow U.S. STEM bachelor’s or higher degree holders who have a job offer to transition directly from student visas to green cards
- Extending post curricular optional practical training for foreign students from 12 months to 24 months to allow them to go more easily from temporary to permanent resident status.
- Exempting the spouse and children of certain employment-based professionals from the employment-based immigrant visa cap
SIA and IEEE-USA continue to have broader immigration positions that include elements in which we are not aligned. However the common position provided political support for three employment-based immigration bills that were introduced by House immigration subcommittee chair Lofgren; H.R. 5882 with Rep. Sensenbrenner, H.R. 5921 with Rep. Goodlatte, and H.R. 6039 with Rep. Cannon. These bills “recapture” unused employment-based visas from prior years and make them available for immediate use by petitioners who meet all statutory requirements for admission as legal permanent residents, eliminate unduly restrictive per country limits on employment-based immigration, and exempt graduates earning advanced degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields at U.S. schools from the current employment-based admissions quotas.
Understanding Our Workforce Dynamics
Each year our Workforce Committee completes an in-depth survey of industry trends. The survey results available only to committee members, help caompanies better understand the workplace, employment trends, attrition, skills usage, and employment categories. These important issues will help us better prepare our member companies for being best-of-class, responsive HR organizations. The survey also includes questions that shed light on important public policy questions such as immigration reform.
Our Workforce is Our Future
Attracting increased numbers of talented students to scientific and mathematical fields, and providing skilled teaching and other incentives needed to see students through to completion of undergraduate and graduate degrees remain a top SIA priority. Our nation cannot afford to allow current rates of attrition in critical engineering fields to jeopardize its continuing technology leadership. In addition to its sizable investment in K-12 and university educational programs, SIA remains committed to lifelong training of a qualified workforce and to retention of talented domestic and foreign nationals in the numbers needed to advance and benefit from semiconductor and microelectronic technologies.
