Government, employers and schools seek 320,000 international students by 2030 as “We need tens of thousands more workers,” said Chang Ho, dean of MUST’s Semiconductor School. “Companies and universities need to work together to foster talent.”
On the outskirts of Hsinchu, a city nicknamed Taiwan’s Silicon Valley, students at the Minghsin University of Science and Technology train on the kind of equipment used in real-life semiconductor factories. Students can also intern at leading chip companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., ASE Technology Holding and Powertech Technology.
One Vietnamese student in a master’s program chose to study in Taiwan to learn from its world-leading semiconductor industry. The 23-year-old plans to work for three or four years at a Taiwanese company after graduation to gain experience.
(image credit: TSMC)
Stagnating wages, rising property prices and other pressures have pushed down Taiwan’s birthrate in recent decades. Annual births fell to a record low of around 135,000 in 2023 from more than 300,000 in the 1990s. Competition for talent in the semiconductor industry has only increased. TSMC alone now hires more than 6,000 workers a year.
Demand for chips is expected to continue growing amid advances in generative artificial intelligence and other technologies. Given Taiwan’s reliance on the semiconductor industry, government, businesses and educational institutions here face pressure to come up with long-term strategies for securing workers.
oreign students from Southeast Asia and elsewhere are seen as part of the solution. Taiwan announced plans last year to spend 5.2 billion New Taiwan dollars ($163 million) by 2028 to attract 320,000 foreign international students by 2030, with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math. This means taking in students at as much as double the pace of before.
Southeast Asian students are a major target of this push. Recent recruiting programs have popped up in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and elsewhere in the region to attract students.
(Source: https://asia.nikkei.com)
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