Korea to amass a chip army with huge spending of public funds

Economy

Published: 19 Jul. 2022, 19:02 Updated: 19 Jul. 2022, 19:08

Korea to amass a chip army with huge spending of public funds

Education Minister Park Soon-ae announces plan regarding semiconductor talents at the government complex in Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Large sums of public money are to be committed to the education and training of 150,000 skilled engineers in the semiconductor field over the next decade.

The government proposal came as countries around the world are racing to ensure sufficient expertise in the semiconductor manufacturing and design fields.

The Science Ministry and the Trade, Industry and Energy Ministry will be allocating 1 trillion won ($763 billion) through 2029 in research projects and education related to advanced system-on-chips and 402.7 billion won to Processing-in-Memory (PIM) semiconductor development.

Red tape will be cut so that more people can sign up for the major and so that more instructors can be hired. Chip experts could be assigned to universities and vocational high schools.

The Education Ministry will be creating a 20-week training session for non-engineering majors, while it will work with the Trade, Industry and Energy Ministry and the Science and ICT Ministry to help colleges set up semiconductor-related majors or courses.

For students with lower academic degrees, including two-year college or high school diplomas, the Education Ministry and the Employment and Labor Ministry will be running programs in cooperation with the private sector so that the training will be well aligned with the needs on the production sites.

Schools like Korea Polytechnics will have facilities that are actually used in semiconductor factories.

The government will establish joint research centers that connect different semiconductor and nanoengineering institutions regionally with Seoul National University's Inter-University Semiconductor Research Center leading.

The structure, it says, could help create synergy and escalate efficiency.

Approximately 177,000 people work in semiconductors in Korea, the government estimates. It expects that figure to grow an average of 5.6 percent every year for the next 10 years, raising the total number to 304,000.

Of those working in the industry, 81,000 have bachelor degrees. That figure is expected to increase 5.3 percent on average annually to 135,000.

The government noted that most of the employees in the business do field work, and thus the business could face a shortage of people with advanced degrees.

"Future workers in high-tech industries, including semiconductors, are catalysts that could help Korea to make a new leap," said Park Soon-ae, Education Minister. "The government will actively take part in fostering talents in high-tech industries as a major national-level survival strategy project."

The plan was disclosed by the Education Ministry during Tuesday's cabinet meeting. Other government departments that participated in fomulated the general outline include the Finance Ministry, the Trade, Industry and Energy Ministry, the Science and ICT Ministry, the Employment Ministry and the SME and Startup Ministry.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]