Government to unveil plan for 50,000 semiconductor industry workforce

                                                    

    

According to the project, by 2030, Vietnamese engineers will be able to deeply engage in the process of designing modern semiconductor circuits; participate deeply in the packaging and testing of semiconductor circuits, master part of the packaging and testing technology. By that time, Vietnamese engineers will work in semiconductor manufacturing factories, gradually grasp the technology in the production process; and train 50,000 engineers to serve the industry in all stages of the value chain.

By 2045, Vietnam becomes an important link in the global semiconductor industry value chain with a team of engineers and experts capable of meeting the requirements for the development of the semiconductor industry in Vietnam in terms of quality and quantity.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment assigned the National Innovation Center (NIC) to be the drafting agency. Mr. Vu Quoc Huy – Director of NIC – said that the project will clarify the overall picture of the human resources for the semiconductor industry in Vietnam by 2030, expecting to provide enough human resources for domestic semiconductor enterprises and exporting labor to other developed markets.

Regarding the semiconductor workforce in Vietnam at present, Mr. Huy said that in terms of design, domestic enterprises include VHT (Viettel) and FPT Semiconductor with about 200 employees. The remaining 36 companies come from Japan, the United States, Taiwan, China, South Korea, which have invested in Vietnam, with a workforce of about 5,600 engineers.

In terms of testing and packaging, Vietnam has Intel’s factories and some FDI companies involved in this stage. Currently, Intel has invested USD 1.5 billion in Vietnam, operating since 2009 with nearly 3,000 engineers. In Bac Ninh, Amkor factory with an investment capital of more than USD 1.6 billion is divided into 3 phases.

According to a 2023 survey by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam has the conditions and capacity to train about 50,000 semiconductor engineers by 2030. Vietnam has attracted more and more major semiconductor corporations from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and especially US corporations such as Intel, Amkor in the packaging, testing area; Marvell, Qorvo, Qualcomm in the design area; Synopsys, Cadence in providing semiconductor design tools.

Vietnam has had some cooperation programs with world semiconductor giants in training human resources. A representative of Siemens Group said that the group would sponsor the most advanced chip design software and circuit boards for Vietnam. At the same time, the group will provide training services and accompany NIC in promoting the development of human resources in the semiconductor industry.

Synopsys has supported NIC in establishing a chip design incubation center at the Hoa Lac facility. This center includes Synopsys’ advanced technologies in modeling and simulation for optimizing software and hardware design of SoC (system-on-chip). Accordingly, Synopsys provides a training license, including curriculum, educational resources, and lecturer training program” to NIC, helping establish a chip design incubation center.

NIC has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the US chip giant Cadence regarding the deployment of activities, to promote design capacity and develop semiconductor chip products in Vietnam; then open an advanced training course on chip design for lecturers of universities in the Hanoi area and engineers at technology companies.

Arizona State University (ASU) will introduce job opportunities for Vietnamese engineers trained at the NIC chip design center for incubation with domestic and foreign enterprises in the semiconductor industry, including links to Arizona’s extensive global semiconductor ecosystem.