GCU helping Arizonans enter semiconductor industry through free program with TSMC

PHOENIX — Grand Canyon University is partnering with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. for an industry-funded 11-week course that could end in a job offer with TSMC Arizona.

The program began last summer and has had 51 students, 35 of whom are now working at TSMC after completing it. It’s funded by a combination of the federal CHIPS Act, local state agencies and industry partners, allowing students to take the course tuition-free.

Reyna Favela is one of the recent graduates now working at TSMC. She said before entering the semiconductor industry she worked in customer service. The career switch came when she received an email about the program from GCU.

“It really just overall helped with my work-life balance. It really helped because I have two little kids and having the time to spend time with them as well as to develop a career has really helped me for sure,” she said.

Favela said her plan is to work her way up in the company.

Who can take semiconductor course through GCU?

Dewey Thomas, GCU executive director for semiconductor workforce development, said the program isn’t just for college students. Anyone with a high school diploma or GED and a green card or U.S. citizenship can apply.

He explained that the enrollees learn how to move semiconductor wafers through the process needed to get them ready for distribution.

“It takes almost thousands of operations to [go] from being in the bare silicon form to getting them into the chips that actually goes into the computers, the cellphones, etc. So, the main fab specialist’s role is to actually work on the systems and to actually move the wafers from operation A to operation B through the whole entire process,” he said.

Thomas said this is benefiting the students, GCU and Arizona’s workforce.

TSMC has invested $165 billion in its microchip fabrication campus in north Phoenix. The company currently has more than 100 openings in Arizona posted on its job board.

“There is a shortage in skilled labor. Not only from engineers, but also in the trade space. And so, this program actually helps support the initiatives that’s been driven at the state level to help develop the workforce development talent that’s needed to work in these high-end, technically demanding jobs,” he said.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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