Addressing the talent crunch in the semiconductor industry

More than ever before, companies in this sector see the need to strike a meaningful and lasting partnership with academia

Engineering students during a training programme at Texas Instruments in Bengaluru.

One by one, four engineering students present a project based on a common theme — cost-effective power production through piezoelectric tiles. Every presentation is followed by “grilling” by senior engineers. This scene is unfolding at the office of Texas Instruments (TI) in Bengaluru, many times over, as 115 second-year female engineering students had attended a month-long hands-on programme by the company, and the training has now culminated in project presentation.

Women in Semiconductors and Hardware (WiSH), as the programme is called, had many aspirants — over 1,500 students from 43 engineering colleges across India had applied — but less than one-tenth passed muster, proving the seriousness and commitment underpinning the exercise.

“Only 27% of women who pursue STEM education in India for higher studies end up pursuing careers in these fields and we want to help change that,” says Santhosh Kumar, president and managing director, Texas Instruments India.

This programme had a gender angle to it, intentionally, but its wider focus was to bridge the academia-industry skill gap in the semiconductor design and manufacturing industry.

The collaboration between Applied Materials India (a big name in the semiconductor industry) and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is known. The latest edition of Philip Kotler’s India management book also dwelt on it. Applied Materials India runs a huge lab on IIT Bombay campus, through which it has sponsored over 120 projects in semiconductors, materials engineering, nanotechnology, renewable energy and bioscience.

Last year, Lam Research Corporation associated with Indian Institute of Science to support skilling of 60,000 Indian engineering students over a period of 10 years.

Similarly, Synopsys is working with many universities for talent creation in various domains.

According to Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, employment opportunities in this sector in India went up seven percent between March 2019 and 2023. But a faster growth rate is needed. With many states in India setting up semiconductor design and manufacturing plants, a large number of skilled engineers is needed. A vast chunk of that talent can come from campuses.

“We look for students with a background in electrical and communication engineering, electrical engineering or electrical and instrumentation engineering,” says Santhosh Kumar, adding that students warming up to this area of engineering are not in high numbers.

India is not turning out enough people with an M.Tech or doctoral (Ph.D) degree in semiconductor-related fields, says the report by Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Under one platform

Ashok Chandok, president, India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), says through ‘SemiconIndia FutureSkills’ they are working towards bringing many companies under one platform and thereby addressing skilling needs.

“It takes time to see the desired results, but by bringing more companies together our effort has become more broad-based and meets what the industry needs,” says Ashok.

Currently, IESA’s talent connect programme reaches out to 65 colleges and it seeks to effect interventions in the areas of curriculum design and research.

Many institutions lack labs needed for research, limiting the number of students entering the sector.

Plea for funding

“Several companies are providing their tools/ labs to institutes to get the young talent trained,” he says, adding that the Association has urged the Government to provide funding to support its skilling programmes.

India also needs a base of skilled technicians to support semiconductor manufacturing plants.

Diploma programmes through Industrial Training Institutes and apprenticeship programmes can meet this need.