While China has remained a dominating force when it comes to the semiconductor industry, an education agency executive says that the self-sufficiency drive of China's semiconductors still needs help by strengthening talent and skill development.
China is Trying to Improve Its Semiconductor Sector as It Plans to See Less Dependency on Foreign Technology
According to the story by SCMP, the semiconductor sector of China is considered a strategic industry that Beijing "wants to see less dependency" when it comes to foreign technology. Due to its plans, the industry is now facing huge gaps when it comes to skills and knowledge within the space.
The situation that China's semiconductor was lacking in terms of skills and knowledge was pointed out by an executive coming from a domestic education agency by the name of Chen Ying. Chen Ying is a known partner at the Huike Edutech.
Chen Shares What Students Think About the Semiconductor Sector and Its Attractiveness
The Huike Edutech is in charge of helping college students become connected with different industries which include chip-making. Chen gave a statement to SCMP saying that there is only a small number of people that are interested in entering the semiconductor sector.
Chen announced that some of the students think that the semiconductor sector is too hard of a job and that they are not paid enough for it. The executive also gave a comment saying the "students are quite realistic."
More Young People are Interested in Pursuing Other Professions than Semiconductors
Huike made a powerful joint venture with Empyrean Technology back in 2020 to help when it comes to training future talent. Empyrean Technology is a domestic leader when it comes to chip designs' electronic design automation (EDA) software.
Chen said that instead of semiconductors, a lot of young people are more interested in other fields like artificial intelligence and big data. These types of professions are often more popular to the younger people instead of pursuing semiconductors.
Read Also: Apple Accepts TSMC Chip Price Hike for iPhone 15: Report
Supply of Graduates Might Not be Enough to Supplement the Demand with IC Majors Shifting Paths
It was noted that this is the case because artificial intelligence along with other disciplines usually offers better "and clearer career prospects." A report by the China Semiconductor Industry Association CSIA recently predicted that there will be a talent gap in 2022 - 2023 for 200,000 people as the industry-wide demand will increase.
The industry-wide demand for 2022 to 2023 is expected to increase all the way to 760,000. It was also found out that around 210,000 graduates in China in 2020 majored in integrated circuits (IC) or other fields that were relevant to semiconductors.
Only 13.8% of those graduates, however, decided to continue their path down the IC industry. In 2021, at least 12 different Chinese universities decided to set up a dedicated "IC school" which included the top two in Beijing, Tsinghua University and Peking University.
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Written by Urian B.
