- Taiwan launches international semiconductor summer camps to tackle labour shortages in its chip industry amid a declining birth rate.
- Organized by US firm Synopsys, the 2025 camp runs in both English and Mandarin to attract global talent and spark early STEM interest.
- With over 33,000 vacancies in Taiwan’s chip sector, the initiative aims to safeguard the island’s dominance in the global semiconductor supply chain.
Dressed in a white protective suit and face mask, Nicolas Chueh listened intently as a guide introduced a series of silver machines used in manufacturing Taiwan’s cutting-edge semiconductors. The 16-year-old was among students from eight countries at the summer camp staged to raise interest in Taiwan’s most vital industry amid a fast-declining birth rate that could leave tens of thousands of critical jobs vacant.
“I myself really enjoy playing video games. So I’m really just always using these semiconductor products”, said Chueh, whose parents enrolled him after he expressed interest.
The camp, organised by US chip design software firm Synopsys, is among several such events staged by chip companies and Taiwanese universities in recent years as demand for semiconductors, which power most electronics and AI servers, surges across the globe.
But for the first time ever in 2025, Synopsys, which has considerable operations in Taiwan to be near the semiconductor supply chain, held the events both in English and Mandarin as Taiwan looks abroad for talent.
"There is a pressing need to reinforce STEM education from a young age, that is why we are setting this up in Taiwan, where its semiconductor strength intersects with the challenge of declining demographics. Combined, it is obvious we have to act here first", commented Mr Robert Li, chairman of Synopsys Taiwan, who thinks the camps can stimulate interest in the chip business and assist in laying the groundwork for some of its future leaders.
Due to constraints presented by Taiwan's ageing population, Synopsys is also looking at hosting camps overseas to generate interest in designing and making chips, he added. The English versions cost NT$33,000 (S$1,420) and Mandarin versions NT$10,900.
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Dual Taiwan-Belgian national Chueh, who resides in Singapore, said he finds semiconductors as a desirable profession to pursue. "I'd like to lean into it to a degree because I think it will be important in the future with AI".
Taiwan, whose population is about 23 million, exercises disproportionate control over the world semiconductor supply chain, through its chip makers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the globe's biggest contract chipmaker, MediaTek, and UMC.
Any fall in the industry would represent an existential threat to Taiwan, which is threatened by invasion from Beijing and derives much of its international importance from the chip giants.
But vacancies in the semiconductor industry have increased from 19,401 during the second quarter of 2020 to 33,725 during the same quarter this year, based on 104 Corporation, a domestic human resources company.
