How Arizona is building the workforce to manufacture semiconductors in the U.S.

Amna Nawaz:

The CHIPS Act passed in 2022 has led to a surge in funding for semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. and a real demand for qualified workers.

These chips power everything from our phones and cars to advanced fighter jets and artificial intelligence. Now some colleges and universities are trying to help fill those jobs and create the work force of the future.

Stephanie Sy has the story for our series Rethinking College.

Stephanie Sy:

Before becoming a manufacturing technician at intel's campus in Chandler, Arizona, Tarji Borders didn't even know what a semiconductor was.

Tarji Borders, Manufacturing Technician, Intel:

I had no idea. All I knew was chips.

Stephanie Sy:

Borders had a background in software development, but after a year of being unemployed, the single mom was looking for new opportunities.

Tarji Borders:

I saw the advertisement, Fresh Start, semiconductor program, specifically for women.

Stephanie Sy:

It was for a two-week crash course in becoming one of the technicians responsible for the machines that make chips, a partnership between a local community college and a nonprofit, Fresh Start Women's Foundation.

Tarji Borders:

And so, in two weeks, if you can go from unemployed trying to raise a family to employed, it really is a life changer.

Stephanie Sy:

After the intensive training program, she got a job at Intel on the night shift, allowing her to balance parenting and work. Semiconductor techs make on average about $48,000 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Tarji Borders:

For a lot of people who may not have degrees or may not have a lot of experience, work experience, or maybe somebody that just wants to change careers, that opportunity is there in the semiconductor industry, because it doesn't really matter what your background is. If you're willing to work and learn the basics, you can get work.

Stephanie Sy:

One industry report predicts 115,000 additional semiconductor jobs will be added nationwide by 2030. But based on current degree completion rates, more than half of those jobs, including most of the technical roles, risk going unfilled.

We recently obtained limited access to the sprawling manufacturing facility built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, in Phoenix. It will eventually have three factories, or fabs, producing semiconductors.

Greg Jackson is director of facility operations.

Greg Jackson, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company:

We have high-paying jobs that are extremely interesting. The manufacturing side of it is not what you would have seen 30 or 40 years ago from the term manufacturing.

This is not put peg in hole, move product down the line. There's a lot of advanced skills that come in place to not just operate facilities, but operate the manufacturing side of it as well.

Stephanie Sy:

At Intel, Cindi Harper, vice president of talent planning and acquisition, says the company has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into work force development over the last five years.

Cindi Harper, Vice President of Talent Planning and Acquisition, Intel: Across Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Ohio, that will create about 10,000 jobs for Intel.

Stephanie Sy:

OK.

Cindi Harper:

And a majority of those are all in the factory; 70 percent of our factories are technicians. That is the bread and butter of Intel.

Stephanie Sy:

Here at Rio Salado College in Tempe, it's the last day of the microelectronics and nano manufacturing certificate program. The course is specifically designed for veterans, and it's free, only 12 weeks long.

For graduates like former Army avionics mechanic Daniel Moreno, it's a quick path into the semiconductor industry.

Daniel Moreno, U.S. Army Veteran:

I have already applied out to Intel and then my next one, of course, is all the big manufacturers.

Stephanie Sy:

Rick Vaughn, faculty chair of STEM initiatives, says the community college offers a low barrier to entry into the field, but he says, until recently, semiconductors jobs have flown under the radar.

Rick Vaughn, Rio Salado College:

When you say, I can go work at Google or I can go work at Microsoft — my daughter works at Microsoft — you know, that's a tangible thing, and they see other people working in that industry.

So I think we need to change that a little bit by giving them role models, tours, opening the doors a little bit to…

Stephanie Sy:

You got to make semiconductors sexy somehow.

Rick Vaughn:

Right, exactly.

Stephanie Sy:

To fill the massive need for technicians, experts say the industry also needs to train and recruit a diverse applicant pool, more women, and underrepresented racial groups.

Two-thirds of the students in the Maricopa Community College system's semiconductor programs' are people of color, helped by Rio Salado's college without walls motto, which combines online with in-person instruction.

Rick Vaughn:

The more that you can meet the student where they're at to give them those flexible learning opportunities, the better you are to appeal to not just the general population, but specifically to those diverse populations.

Stephanie Sy:

Jessica Hoover immigrated from Ecuador. She recently completed the introduction to semiconductor manufacturing certificate at Rio Salado.

So this is a microchip that you made.

Jessica Hoover, Student:

We created it in the lab. I am from a different country. And it's so difficult sometimes to find these kind of opportunities. Step by step, was great. This is like the magic starts from here.

Stephanie Sy:

The labs where the magic actually happens are a quick drive away at Arizona State University.

Trevor Thornton is an electrical engineering professor here.

Trevor Thornton, Arizona State University:

We're facing a shortfall of 50,000, 70,000 semiconductor engineers and technicians. So even a school like ASU, if we carry on with our traditional approach, 7,000 students graduating isn't going to make a very big impact if you need 50,000 or 70,000.

Stephanie Sy:

So what are you doing to change your approach?

Trevor Thornton:

We found we have had the biggest impact if we work with community colleges.

Stephanie Sy:

ASU provides the advanced labs community colleges can't afford. This research lab allows students, and for a day, our "NewsHour" team, the chance to experience working in a so-called clean room.

The bunny suit protects equipment and materials from dust. Here at the nanofab clean room at ASU, students have the opportunity to handle the actual raw materials that go into making semiconductor chips. The vast majority of chips start with a single crystal of silicon, not unlike this. So this is called the clean room.

Trevor Thornton:

That's right. And this is where we take those wafers, and we bring them in here to finish the manufacturing process.

Stephanie Sy:

Whether the area's training programs have scaled up quickly enough to meet the demand for labor remains a big question.

Eventually, TSMC will need 6,000 workers to operate their three fabs. Greg Jackson says they're piloting the state's first registered apprenticeship in semiconductors to build their own pipeline.

Greg Jackson:

The apprenticeship will reach into those high schools and bring in people from all those different pathways that may not have ever thought about being in the semiconductor industry.

Stephanie Sy:

Competing for skilled workers has been described in the region as a sort of arms race, but it's also a renaissance, not only for the U.S. semiconductor industry, but for people like Tarji Borders.

Tarji Borders:

My 9-year-old was on the phone with one of her friends, and I heard her say: "You know, your phone and your computer? My mom makes the chips."

It just warmed my heart because she was so proud to tell her friend about what her mom does. So that was really cool.

Stephanie Sy:

Borders is now working toward a master's degree and hopes to one day become a manufacturing engineer.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy in Chandler, Arizona.