European Chips Skills Academy Unveils Comprehensive Skills Strategy to Boost Competitiveness of Semiconductor Ecosystem

The European Chips Skills Academy (ECSA), an EU-funded initiative coordinated by SEMI, today announced the publication of the Skills Strategy report by DECISION Etudes & Conseil that outlines the strategic approaches required to tackle Europe’s growing talent shortage in the semiconductor sector. The report provides critical insights into the industry’s workforce demand and supply, while outlining methods to address the talent gap by 2030. With increasing demand for chips and the investments from the EU Chips Act beginning to gain traction, the semiconductor industry is expected to experience substantial growth in the coming years.

The report shows a projected employment annual growth rate of 5% by 2030, with more than 271,000 job openings expected over the forecast period. However, the current pipeline of graduates is not growing at a sufficient rate to match this growth. The report predicts a shortage of over 75,000 technical jobs across key areas such as hardware and software engineering, technicians, and data specialists. Despite Europe producing over 1.1 million STEM graduates in 2022 and 320,000 in semiconductor related fields of study, only 6% of European STEM graduates are expected to enter the semiconductor industry. With many of these graduates opting for engineering careers in unrelated domains or positions beyond traditional engineering sectors, it is essential for Europe to respond to solve the talent gap.