GEORGE TOWN — Leaders in the semiconductor industry have several suggestions for the government to ensure continued future supply of engineers and skilled workers.
If Putrajaya targets training and upskilling 60,000 high-skilled local engineers to boost the sector by 2030 under its National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS), around 10,000 engineers need to be created per year from this year onwards, said Datuk Loo Lee Lian, the CEO of Penang state’s investment promotion agency InvestPenang.
Incentivising STEM education
Noting the low number of graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) field, Loo recommended Putrajaya incentivise parents whose children choose STEM and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) as education and career options.
This could be in the form of tax reliefs, apart from providing allocations for TVET programmes under the government’s annual budgets, Loo told Scoop.
Malaysian Semiconductor Industry Association (MSIA) president Datuk Seri Wong Siew Hai also agreed that more students should be encouraged to study STEM subjects.
“If we ask the universities whether student intakes have dropped for engineering (courses), they will say yes. The number is dropping every year,” he said.
Both Wong and Loo noted the low interest in Malaysian secondary school students to study in the science stream, adding that this would affect the talent creation process for the semiconductor industry.
Wong said the number of students taking up science and engineering courses had reduced from 60% around three decades ago to 25% now.
Rope in universities and retrain unemployed engineers
Wong also suggested that five to six existing public universities form a cluster to focus on developing engineering courses for integrated circuit (IC) design, wafer fabrication and semiconductors.
Universities would need to have industrial partnerships with the semiconductor industry, so that they are updated on the latest technologies in the industry, he added.
As a short-term solution, Wong also suggested that jobless engineers be retrained and upskilled so they can be hired by semiconductor firms.
This is already being done by some training service providers such as Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC), USAINS Holdings Sdn Bhd and others using funds provided by the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF), he noted.
Time to consider foreign graduates
Wong and Loo suggested the government consider opening up STEM jobs to international graduates to address the talent shortage problem.
In August, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the government may consider relaxing the restrictions on foreign science and engineering graduates from Malaysian universities working in Malaysian integrated circuit (IC) design companies, should local graduates be unavailable for these positions.
At present, foreign graduates are permitted to work for a maximum of one year on a part-time basis. Anwar explained that this one-year limit was established to prioritise job opportunities for local graduates first.
However, Wong disagreed with the notion that allowing foreign graduates to work in local semiconductor firms would hurt local graduates’ employment prospects.
He said the industry’s global history for the last five decades proved that hiring foreign graduates also helped to boost job creation.
“Malaysia, in theory, is worried about depriving Malaysians of jobs (by opening up opportunities to foreign graduates).
“However, in practice, (this) creates more jobs in the country because they are able to do more projects on the latest technology. We have brilliant people who can contribute to the economy.
“I hope the Prime Minister will listen (to our suggestion) and do it because this will make a lot of difference (for the semiconductor industry),” Wong added.
Pay and brain drain challenges
Loo meanwhile, noted the relatively lower graduate pay for engineers and technicians as a contributing factor to the talent shortage problem, although she pointed out that graduate pay from the pre-Covid-19 pandemic period is now catching up.
She also cited brain drain as one of the key reasons for the talent crunch facing the country’s semiconductor industry.
Loo said swift and tactical responses adopted by other countries pose a challenge for Malaysia to retain its engineering talents.
Such responses include progressive migration policies which leads to increasing emigration of engineering talents from Malaysia to those countries.
“(For example) Singapore offers a five-year visa under the Overseas Networks and Expertise (ONE) pass for skilled foreign talent earning at least SGD30,000 annually.
“A more favourable exchange rate and lower income tax, especially in Singapore (also contribute to labour emigration),” said Loo.
The semiconductor industry in Penang, which is concentrated in Bayan Lepas and Batu Kawan, commanded an estimated 5% of global semiconductor exports in 2019, according to SEMI, a US-based semiconductor industry association, which used data compiled from the Department of Statistics Malaysia and the United Nations’ Comtrade.
Wong, meanwhile, said hiring in the semiconductor industry is being done on with a “strategic” approach to focus on engineers in specific areas such as silicon carbide wafer fabrication, advanced packaging, semiconductor substrates, and designing of integrated circuits (IC).
Recruitment is also presently focused filling up vacancies and to full manpower requirements for special projects, he said. – November 12, 2024