How UT and Austin Community College are helping tackle semiconductor workforce needs

When U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo came to Austin Community College on Monday, she recognized a student at the school.

“She shakes my hand and she’s like, ‘Wait, do I remember you?'” said Eriverto Adame, a student at ACC who wants to work as an engineer.

On Raimondo’s visit to the campus Monday, she was meeting with ACC and University of Texas students aspiring to work in the semiconductor industry to ask them how she could help, Adame said. This was Raimondo’s second visit to ACC in a little over a year to learn about the college's growing semiconductor workforce programs.

More:Why Samsung semiconductor plant in Taylor is receiving $6.4 billion from federal CHIPS Act

“We have the best people in the background right now who are putting all their effort and even more to expand this group,” Adame said.

After a governmental push to bolster the industry, ACC and the University of Texas announced in late March that they are developing a joint semiconductor training center and semiconductor curriculum and credentialing to create more education pathways to help fill jobs in the growing field.

Before stopping at ACC on Monday, Raimondo was in Taylor with other officials to announce a deal between the Biden administration and semiconductor production giant Samsung that would give $6.4 billion to the corporation's still-under-construction manufacturing facility northeast of Austin. 

Semiconductors enable modern technology in everything from a calculator to gaming systems, said Laura Marmolejo, associate dean of advanced manufacturing at ACC.

By 2030, the nation’s semiconductor workforce is projected to grow by 115,000 jobs, according to a July 2023 study by economic research consulting group Oxford Economics. It estimated that 58% of new jobs won’t be filled if degree completion rates stay the same — including technicians, computer scientists and engineers.

National security and the hardware behind artificial intelligence both rely on semiconductors, making it a national priority to address rising work needs internally instead of outsourcing jobs, said S.V. Sreenivasan, a professor in UT’s Cockrell School of Engineering.

“This is not only a fast-growing industry (that) creates well-paying jobs, but it's strategically important for our commerce and our national security,” Sreenivasan said. “We either will lead or will follow, and you know what is the obvious thing to do.”

Sreenivasan led a task force at UT created in 2021 to bolster Austin’s semiconductor manufacturing as U.S. lawmakers from Texas were working on the CHIPS and Science Act, a bill President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022 that set aside $280 billion to address the shortage of microchips, an essential part of the manufacturing process.

After Texas passed its own CHIPS Act in 2023 to support and encourage companies and universities to invest in semiconductor innovation, Sreenivasan also served on the governor’s Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium.

“I've never seen this kind of collaboration to emphasize workforce,” Sreenivasan said. “We know the numbers that are needed and I think the plans are getting in place to go execute (and) make it happen.”

Marmolejo said ACC has been supporting the industry for 10 years. But with UT's partnership, it'll be able to expand hands-on opportunities for students in process training that used to be cost-prohibitive for ACC to provide alone.

Alyssa Reinhart, workforce development director at the Texas Institute for Electronics at UT, said the semiconductor training center, which could launch as early as January 2025, will have a physical space. Students will also take advantage of resources like the chip facility at UT’s J.J. Pickle Research Campus and a semiconductor plant on Montopolis Drive, which is currently under renovation.

The Texas Institute for Electronics, a public-private partnership created at UT which received $522 million in funding from the state, will provide $3.75 million to develop the new semiconductor training center, according to UT's news release about the partnership.

Reinhart said the new joint UT-ACC program will work with industry partners to address the broad spectrum of jobs in the industry.

“We're trying to align to the hiring cycles and with what company needs are,” Reinhart said.

In addition to the joint announcement, UT is also planning to launch a master's degree in engineering with a major in semiconductor science and engineering. Reinhart said UT is also working on developing a minor.

Both higher education institutions are working to increase awareness of the forthcoming opportunities. Sreenivasan said UTeach, a program that prepares STEM-interested undergraduates to be teachers, has added semiconductors to the program. Reinhart said she is also working on involving K-12 education partners.

“People say we don't have enough people to train for this industry,” Marmolejo said. “There are people, we just have to find a way to engage them with the educational systems with the jobs.”

Adame, who first enrolled at ACC in 2018 to pursue an associate's degree, is now back at the college to pursue a bachelor's degree. He got involved in semiconductor workforce training through a Samsung program that put him on a path to the associate's degree at ACC after he graduated high school.

He said ACC's and UT’s investment in semiconductor training is helping him “tremendously.” Pursuing this career path, he said, has opened his curiosity and potential.

“It’s changed my life drastically, not only a career change, but also a mental change,” Adame said. “Being in the semiconductor field … there's just endless possibilities of learning.”