At a workshop on international cooperation to develop human resources for microchip design held by the Ministry of Planning and Investment several days ago, Trinh Khac Hue, CEO of Qorvo, said that new graduates working for Qorvo can receive up to VND320 million a year.

Meanwhile, new PhDs can receive VND360 million, medium-level engineers VND900 million, senior engineers VND1.5 billion, specialists VND1.9 billion, and chief engineers at different levels can get up to VND2.5 billion, or higher, if counting in shares and bonuses rewarded to them.

“Studying semiconductors is not just in vogue, but is a valuable career if young people have a passion for it and the capability,” he said.

Hue said there are eight requirements that a microchip design engineer needs to have: good background in maths (useful when designing and analyzing circuits); deep knowledge of principles of analog and digital circuits; knowledge about physics, especially semiconductor physics, with focus on CMOS (a technology used to make integrated circuits); capability using tools/design software; skills to handle signals; 6

soft skills to satisfy requirements and high creativity; good presentation skills and good communication with co-workers; and project management skills.

Seo Choo Han from Cadence Group said the biggest challenge of the semiconductor industry is the lack of qualified workers. The requirements on microchip designing engineers are increasingly high.

Affirming that cooperation between enterprises and schools is an important foundation for success in training semiconductor engineers, Cadence has provided the copyright for the design software to more than 30 universities in Vietnam and organized many deep training courses for lecturers and university students.

He said the semiconductor industry needs workers capable of certain work, including PPA improvement (power, performance and area) of chips; advanced packaging technology; and 3D-IC chip design. If students study the subjects, they will be able to enter into the world’s semiconductor industry. 

Huynh Dang Chinh, vice president of the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, said his school has been cooperating with foreign firms when training high-quality microchip design engineers. Chinh said that HUST graduates can work for foreign invested enterprises and overseas enterprises.

A report found that more than 50 percent of HUST graduates work for FIEs (foreign invested enterprises) in Vietnam.

Problems in training

Although optimistic about the future of Vietnam’s semiconductor industry, Ngac An Bang, Vice Rector of the Hanoi University of Natural Resources, pointed out that universities, including top-tier ones, only satisfy some requirements in training.

“International cooperation is a must. Only international cooperation in training can produce workers capable of working in the industry and meeting international standards,” he said.

The lack of qualified lecturers remains a significant problem. The laboratories at universities in Vietnam have improved, but most cannot meet the requirements compared with international standards. 

Lecturers and students want to have opportunities for experiments, practice, and internship at semiconductor enterprises, but this is a very difficult task. In general, they just have "sightseeing" trips. One of the reasons is security.

The University of Natural Sciences has strengthened international cooperation, considering this an important solution to the problem. With the support of important partners, such as National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), one of the world’s leading schools providing majors related to semiconductor technology, the university has built a joint program for a master’s degree in semiconductors.

The foreign partner gives support in curriculum design, sends specialists to give lectures, provides laboratories, and organizes internship campaigns at large corporations such as TSMC and Micron.

After five years of cooperation, about 40 trainees have graduated. Of these, 30 continue to study at NCTU and Tsinghua University, five have become PhD students at Australian universities, two are in Singapore and eight are working for Micron.

Most recently, the university sent seven lecturers with doctorates to training courses under the framework of ASU’s (Arizona State University) semiconductor program, a part of the ITSI (The US International Technology Security and Innovation) Fund, established under the CHIPS Act and funded by the US Department of State. It has also built and submitted applications for funding from several international organizations which will improve the capability of the university’s lecturers.

Binh Minh