The semiconductor manufacturing industry is fighting to attract, educate, and retain the necessary talent for its continued growth. A significant workforce gap of up to 10,000 global positions stretches the industry’s ability to meet the world’s already demanding technology needs. To solve this challenge, SEMI, the global electronics manufacturing association, is launching an audacious and innovative campaign to raise industry awareness and attract students and recent graduates that don’t yet know about the immense opportunities available to them in semiconductor manufacturing.
Semiconductors are the brains and memory of all modern electronics. Their incredible processing power has made breakthroughs possible in communication, transportation, and medicine, powering everything from smartphones to space travel. Whether you’re driving a car, surfing the internet or using a computer, semiconductors drive technological innovation. Global semiconductor revenue has grown by over $100 billion in the last four years and is projected to surpass $0.5 trillion by 2019.
The campaign, You’re Welcome, speaks to how fundamental, yet underappreciated, this technology is. It includes a suspenseful, action-filled movie trailer that shows what happens when scientists, engineers, and mathematicians make semiconductors to save the world from the brink of disaster. The video also takes viewers behind-the-scenes of a semiconductor facility, or fab, which brings together cutting-edge STEM fields to develop the world’s most advanced technology. The campaign’s website provides information about the value and production of semiconductors, as well as a career guide that showcases the wide variety of opportunities available with companies such as Intel, Samsung, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, and the more than 2,000 SEMI member companies.
The campaign is just one piece in SEMI’s comprehensive workforce development plan. The plan engages students as early-on as 4th grade, inspires and motivates them through high school and college, and provides pathways to professional careers, building a pipeline to fill the short-term and long-term needs of the industry. Through the You’re Welcome campaign, SEMI is addressing the increasingly urgent workforce need by taking a completely new, never-before-seen approach to talent recruitment by leveraging high-interest areas of entertainment, media and storytelling to excite students about the industry’s role in society.