The News: Semiconductor and software design vendor Arm Ltd. is fighting the global semiconductor skills shortage by helping to create a new Semiconductor Education Alliance that aims to find and train the next generations of skilled semiconductor workers. The Alliance will bring together Arm and its partners and stakeholders from industry, education, and government to find new ways to attract, train, re-skill and hire new workers for the specialized work of manufacturing semiconductor chips. Read the full Press Release on the Arm Ltd. website.
Arm Fighting Semiconductor Skills Shortage With New Education Alliance
Analyst Take: Arm’s leadership in this important effort to battle the ongoing semiconductor skills shortage is smart and impressive as chipmakers continue to run into problems finding enough skilled workers to design and build their very specialized, in-demand products. Without enough skilled and educated workers to work in chip-building labs performing delicate operations and maintaining strict manufacturing protocols, all the new chip plants being built around the world could face staffing challenges that would slow production schedules.
That is where this new initiative from Arm and its partners is taking a solid and imaginative approach to this vexing problem for chipmakers. If the workers are in short supply, then it makes sense to find them, recruit them, incentivize them, train them, and help them prepare for mutual success. The Semiconductor Education Alliance can target and specify what chipmakers need and recruit the workers who can fill those specialized needs, which is a major advantage as the group helps to fill these critical needs for workers.
Of course, Arm is a fabless chipmaker, specializing in designing chips and their related software, while leaving the actual production of physical chips to others including Intel, TSMC, and others. But even without its own chip plants, Arm wants to ensure that there are workers to build the chips it is designing and creating for the global marketplace. I believe that these efforts are laudable and well-timed.
Arm’s partners in the Alliance include Arduino, Cadence, Cornell University, the Semiconductor Research Consortium, STMicroelectronics, Synopsys, Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute, the All-India Council for Technical Education, and the University of Southampton, with more to come as the initiative grows. Arm and its partners are also encouraging individuals and groups to get involved in the efforts.
How Arm and Partners Are Fighting the Semiconductor Skills Shortage
To make the program a success, the Alliance is working to create and deliver competency frameworks tailored to the industry needs of specific geographies as well as bringing together accelerated educational and training pathways, resources, and related services to bring together and support larger pools of qualified and ready semiconductor workers.
Arm says it will play a vital coordination role in the new Alliance, which it calls an evolution of the company’s existing education model. The Alliance is being developed by Arm’s team of education professionals from colleges and universities, who will work with community members to share resources and expertise through a variety of forums. The structure is designed to give teachers, researchers, aspiring or practicing engineers, and others easier access to critical resources to match qualified workers with semiconductor careers. It will also enable new opportunities to collaborate on projects such as joint bids for research grants, according to Arm.
Some examples of projects that are already being put together are new Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) chip design educational resources using modern Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools and intellectual property (IP), as well as new distance learning opportunities in computer engineering and informatics.
Also underway from the Alliance is the creation of a global system-on-chip (SoC) design platform for academia which will include access to the latest semiconductor fabrication technologies from Arm and its partners.
Diversity and the Semiconductor Skills Shortage
Another part of the Alliance’s mission to help the semiconductor industry find, train, and hire a dedicated stream of specialized workers is to grow and encourage diversity in the workforce, according to Arm. Plans call for encouraging workers to come to the industry through technical, vocational, and self-study pathways that will attract workers from a broad range of backgrounds, regardless of their prior education or experience. The Alliance members will provide prospective workers to gain firsthand experience through internships, apprenticeships, and co-op placements, as well as free distance learning tracks will be made available. By breaking down barriers to entry for people who may not have previously considered careers in semiconductors, the Alliance will enlarge the pool of prospective candidates and increase its chances of finding and training qualified workers for its members. I applaud and encourage these future-looking initiatives, which I believe will benefit the industry.
Arm is already working to bring in new workers to the semiconductor industry through its own efforts, but the new Alliance and the larger focus through its membership will grow Arm’s work dramatically.
Conclusions on Arm’s Approach to the Semiconductor Skills Shortage
I believe that the new Semiconductor Education Alliance is a wise move at an opportune time as the semiconductor industry continues to work to fill more chip orders from every kind of target market. The Covid-19 pandemic and the chip and product shortages that resulted along with global supply chain disruptions taught many industries, including chip designers and chipmakers, that wider production was needed to prevent future problems and capacity issues.
By working with partners, educators, and governments to seek a broader talent pool, the Alliance makes it clear that it is focusing on the right issues and seeking workable steps to boost the workforce for chip design and manufacturing vendors into the future. We will watch these efforts with excitement as the Alliance grows its activities for the industry.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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