Vietnam's semiconductor labor competitiveness is inferior to Korea and China.

The first seminar on the current situation and solutions for labor supply in the semiconductor industry was held by the People's Committee of Bac Giang province on April 16, attracting the participation of many FDI enterprises, universities and colleges.

Hana Micron Vina is a company specializing in manufacturing and processing integrated circuit boards for mobile phones and smart devices with two factories located in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh. The Bac Giang facility alone can produce 100 million semiconductor chips each year. The factory has more than 1,600 employees, expected to increase to 1,900 by the end of the year. However, the proportion of high-level personnel is still low, with workers from level B and above accounting for 39%, equipment engineers about 23%, and process engineers about 29%, so it takes a lot of training time to master the process.

General Director Chung Won Soek assessed that the Vietnamese labor force in this industry is young, but work standards and competitiveness are weaker than those of Korea and China.

For example, in terms of job proficiency, a Vietnamese worker can operate equipment 18 times faster than a Chinese worker can 40 times and a Korean worker can 60 times. The ability to maintain and improve processes and costs of Chinese and Korean engineers is 2-3 times higher than that of Vietnamese in terms of scores. The work experience and seniority of Vietnamese workers are also much less.

To supply the labor force, the company cooperates with colleges and plans to expand the training program by 2026. Students are directly instructed by Hana engineers at school, then go to the company for internships. This group passes two internships, and when they work at Hana, they will receive a salary one level higher than that of regular recruits. In this way, Mr. Chung hopes to find high-quality personnel in the semiconductor industry.

From the end of 2022 to now, the company has organized two internship courses for nearly 120 students, selecting 66 employees to stay and work. Hana representative suggested that the school focus on training in professional awareness and awareness because the company only selects students who really want to work and stay long-term after graduation.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ngoc, Deputy Director of Bac Giang Industrial Parks Management Board, said that semiconductors are a new industry so there are few formal workers, mainly people who study related fields. Those recruited for technical positions are mainly university, college, and intermediate graduates majoring in automation, electronic engineering, electronic equipment, information technology, mechanical engineering, and chemical technology.

Most of the expertise is not suitable, so the company has to train them from the beginning. Those who have been trained for 1-3 months can grasp the job but still need supervision from managers and technical experts. It takes 6 months to a year for that person to be proficient and work independently. General laborers need about a month of training, then receive additional guidance while working.

Therefore, Mr. Ngoc suggested that schools carefully consult the needs of the market and businesses to train closely to reality, assess the actual capacity of students to provide specific orientation. The management board will act as a bridge between businesses and schools to build a system and provide information on market needs and trends.

In addition to its youth, the challenge also comes from the specific nature of the industry, making it difficult to attract experts and good lecturers for training. Mr. Vo Xuan Hoai, Deputy Director of the National Innovation Center, said that infrastructure and high-tech equipment for training human resources require large investments from the Government, institutes and businesses. The coordination between schools and businesses with formal training programs is currently inconsistent and does not meet international standards.

"More policies are needed to encourage engineering students to enter the semiconductor sector," Mr. Hoai emphasized, suggesting that Bac Giang improve the capacity of higher education institutions and allocate budgets for short-term practical training projects or postgraduate training.

Mr. Truong Viet Anh, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, assessed that with land resources and human resources, Bac Giang is suitable to attract factories and focus on production, packaging and testing. However, even in these stages, trained human resources are still very lacking.

He suggested that the province could cooperate and order suitable universities or organize short-term courses that combine training and practice at enterprises. In the selection, priority should be given to Vietnamese enterprises that are capable of mastering technology to create opportunities to develop "made in Vietnam" products; enterprises with similar starting points from countries developing semiconductor technology such as Korea and China to learn from experience and transfer technology.

Vice Chairman of Bac Giang Provincial People's Committee Mai Son said that focusing on training workers at the packaging and testing levels, the province will focus on three solutions: improving the internal capacity of schools, having preferential policies for teachers and learners; linking with universities and manufacturing enterprises to train human resources; negotiating with foreign schools to send Bac Giang children to study this field and supporting them during their studies.

The entire Bac Giang province currently has more than 8,000 workers working in semiconductor enterprises, most of whom are 18-35 years old. However, mid-level to managerial professionals only account for over 23%, the rest are at lower levels. This year, the province needs nearly 2,000 more semiconductor workers and by 2030, the number will increase to about 6,000 people.