Skill shortages may further fuel semiconductor shortage
The semiconductor shortage is some of the biggest and most persistent news in electronics hardware, and has been for a few years now. We’ve been constantly reporting on products affected by the supply chain issues, from GPU price hikes, truck heists, and severe DDR5 shortages that aren’t likely to let up anytime soon. It even brought up the price of the ever beloved tiny PC solution Raspberry Pi for the first time in ever. And while company’s have been working hard to develop more infrastructure for silicon production, that may well be only half of the problem.
According to Nikkei Asia, a skills shortage might be the next biggest hurdle towards semiconductor shortage. Taiwan is a hot spot for semiconductor production with world leading chip maker TSMC claiming residence.
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Taiwan is also home to PC hardware’s best trade show, Computex, which is said to be returning to Taipei this year. And it houses the prestigious microelectronics school, Yang Ming Chiao Tung University where students are getting their pick of potential job prospects often before they even graduate.
One student, Ken Wu, who’s doctorate won’t even be complete until June this year, has already spent the last two years being headhunted by potential employers. Wu explained that despite not even being able to take a fulltime job due to his studies, companies are constantly trying to schedule interviews with him about future employment. With so many choices on offer, Wu is set to take a role as a senior engineer later this year. He’ll be working with Taiwan's Macronix, which supplies specialised memory to Apple, Nintendo, and BMW.
Wu’s story doesn’t seem
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