The thirst for human resources in the semiconductor manufacturing industry has prompted many training institutions to open related majors before the 2024 enrolment season.

During a visit to FPT Corporation earlier in February, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung evaluated this business’s bet on semiconductor chips as the right choice.

“FPT’s success could inspire other domestic technology businesses because the semiconductor industry would be a key industry for Vietnam in the next 30-50 years,” Hung said.

FPT was the first Vietnamese company to commercialise this product, with an order to supply 70 million chips to South Korea and Japan.

“Vietnamese people are very talented in maths, engineering, technology and science, which are all basic elements in chip making,” added Hung. “From human resource advantages, other advantages will be created.”

According to the country’s national strategy for the industry, human resources play an important role with the need to train up to 50,000 integrated circuit design engineers and hundreds of thousands of engineers and technical workers in related industries by 2030.

However, Vietnam currently only has fewer than 5,600 chip design engineers, 85 per cent of which are concentrated in Ho Chi Minh City and the others in Hanoi and the central city of Danang, according to the National Agency for Science and Technology Information.

The scarcity of human resources in the industry has opened opportunities for training institutions, especially technology and engineering schools, to quickly participate in the race to the industry with qualified employees.

Ho Chi Minh City National University this year will deploy training in semiconductor circuit design at three affiliated training units: VNU University of Science, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, and University of Engineering and Technology.

Schools under the University of Danang will also enrol nearly 200 students for semiconductor circuit design training in 2024.

Many other training institutions have also announced plans to enrol students in the circuit design major, including Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Can Tho University, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City, and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology.

At the end of January, the University of Technology at Hanoi National University and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. signed a cooperation agreement to organise a VNU-Samsung Tech Track programme with the goal of training high-quality, qualified human resources in semiconductors and microchips in Vietnam.

The scheme has already enrolled students, with all training costs sponsored by Samsung Electronics, and direct work opportunities for Samsung Group after graduating could be attained for excellent performances.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), there are currently 35 higher education institutions in Vietnam which are directly training in semiconductors or related industries such as IT, electronics, and telecommunications.

Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Thu Thuy, director of the Higher Education Department under the MoET, said about 50 large foreign-led enterprises have invested in Vietnam’s chip industry.

“It is expected that in the 2024 school year, schools will enrol more than 1,000 students in courses related to semiconductors and 7,000 students in other fields related to this industry. Enrolment targets will gradually increase by 20-30 per cent each year,” Thuy said.

It is forecast that the demand for human resources in the semiconductor chip industry will be about 20,000 people in the next five years, and this number could reach 50,000 people in 10 years.

Vietnam Investment Review