Austin Community College, a leader in semiconductor workforce training in central Texas recognized with a federal grant secured by U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett and donations from major manufacturers NXP and Samsung, will develop a semiconductor training curriculum. Officials announced they are partnering with other companies to share it across the country. Wednesday.
“We’re talking about Central Texas, but we’re about to become the center of this country and the world,” said ACC Chancellor Laurie Hart. “The world reconsidered by the CHIPS Act and the semiconductor business.”
ACC, along with the American Frontier Fund, the workforce development nonprofit Merit America, and the Texas Electronics Institute, is part of the Opportunity Coalition, which offers the university’s advanced manufacturing production training programs nationwide at no upfront cost. This new initiative will help low-wage workers across the country transition into in-demand advanced manufacturing jobs through the Quick Turn program.
The program will first be piloted at Temple University and the University of Central Texas, then expanded to Arizona, New Mexico and Ohio, Laurie Hart said. The pilot program, sponsored by the Dell Foundation, is scheduled to begin in January with the goal of expanding nationally next fall, said Garrett Groves, ACC vice chancellor for strategic initiatives.
The coalition aims to reach 20,000 learners by 2030 and drive a total of $2 billion in wage growth, which will increase as U.S. manufacturing grows, ACC said in a news release. He said it will help meet the workforce demand.
“Today is exciting because we’re talking about what’s going to happen next. It’s powerful when lives are changed by what we launch today,” said Lourie Hart.
More: How UT and Austin Community College are helping address semiconductor workforce needs
Semiconductor chips power electronic devices ranging from phones and cars to weapons. Recent moves to strengthen this industry domestically stem from bipartisan federal efforts to ensure the nation’s national security and the independence of critical industries and promote economic development. The CHIPS and Science Act passed in 2022 has led to significant changes locally, with approximately $280 billion to expand research and domestic manufacturing.
While Central Texas is attracting significant growth in manufacturing, a Workforce Solutions report from last year found that manufacturing technicians (jobs that require a high school diploma or less but less than a four-year college degree) are There is a huge shortage.” A metropolitan area experiencing rapid growth. At a press conference Wednesday, Mayor Kirk Watson said the new partnership will help ensure everyone in Austin can get a manufacturing job with a family-sustaining wage and “help the city tap into the power of technology and innovation.” “It will set a new standard for how we can leverage it to shape a better society.” world. “
“If we approach the CHIPS Act and what’s happening in the industry the right way and approach this opportunity the way we should approach it, Austin and Central Texas will become the center of the world,” Watson said. said. “That’s what people across the country expect to happen.”
Jordan Blashek, president of America’s Frontier Foundation, said the new program could “double” the wages of low-wage workers in one month.
Connor Demand Yauman, co-CEO of Merit America, shared the story of Lily, a woman who trained as an engineer and saw her pay increase from $17 an hour to $48 an hour. With this wage, she can buy a house and support her family.
“There are approximately 70 million people like Lilly in this country, low-wage workers in dead-end jobs with no real opportunity for advancement,” he said. “If we can bring together a world-class curriculum, world-class coaching and funding, we will be able to help people like Lilly make the American Dream a reality.”
How ACC became a semiconductor training specialist
Partners said ACC is the gold standard in curriculum. Blashek said the coalition-leading investment platform and Merit America came together a year ago with the goal of creating a national training program to strengthen the semiconductor workforce and lift families out of low-wage jobs. said.
“Everyone we talked to said, ‘We have to talk to the ACC,'” Blashek said.
Laurie Hart said what makes ACC’s curriculum so strong is its connections with workforce partners. He said the new partnership will bring together multiple resources in Austin and will be transformative for the region.
“A world with automation, robotics, science, AI, and semiconductor manufacturing in front of us requires us to align and collaborate in ways never before necessary, and we is doing that. That’s what excites me the most,” Lowry Hart said.
Grove added that ACC’s experience, expertise and partnerships with employers make the college a “huge asset” nationally.
“The need is tremendous, but Austin is one of the few places that has been doing this for 10 years,” Grove said. “We provide in-house training for these companies, something that no other place in the country seems to have been able to build at the scale that we have built.”
Alyssa Reinhart, director of the Texas Electronics Institute, a semiconductor consortium sponsored by the University of Texas, said the Opportunity Coalition is a “powerful effort” to address the worker shortage. He said UT and ACC are building a semiconductor training center to provide hands-on programming to students in Central Texas, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is building a semiconductor microelectronics center for the U.S. defense at the Texas Electronics Research Institute. It is said to have received an $840 million grant to develop it. This sector offers opportunities for further upskilling in high-demand fields. (ACC won $7.5 million as one of the partner institutions and was the only community college partner asked to help.)
“Above all, this is about people,” she added.
Barbara Mink, founder of the ACC School District and who is retiring from the university’s board of directors after 24 years of service, said this is the kind of effect the school had always intended.
“What Austin Community College does is respond to the needs of the community,” Mink said. “Our student population has gone from 1,800 to more than 70,000, and we now have 11 campuses. … Austin Community College has some impact on economic and social equity issues in Central Texas. There was no doubt about it.”
This article was originally published in “Austin American-Statesman: Austin Community College to receive semiconductor training across the country.”
