Maricopa Community Colleges District to launch real-world semiconductor training program

PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on Thursday announced a workforce development program that will offer a training program to simulate real-world experience for Maricopa Community Colleges students interested in the semiconductor industry.

The colleges will partner with the Arizona Commerce Authority for the program.

Susan Bitter Smith, the Governing Board President of the district, spoke with KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Friday to discuss what the new program will entail.

“We’re very excited about the program,” Bitter Smith said. “It’s a brand-new training program and these new grants from ACA and the governor’s office allow us to provide a full-size model, clean room that will provide training for fabrication floor technology, maintenance repair technicians – a number of other jobs that are vital to respond to this growing, semiconductor demand in Arizona.”

The program received input from industry partners such as Intel, The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and XP to ensure that the training simulates an actual fabrication center. The hope is that new graduates will seamlessly transition into roles at these companies, according to Bitter Smith.

Why is there a need for semiconductor training?

TSMC is the more well-known name out of the chip manufacturers and received $6.6 billion in grant funding for 20,000 construction jobs and 6,000 high-paying manufacturing jobs in Phoenix. The money came from the CHIPS and Science Act, to help the global-giant manufacturer build three plants for manufacturing chips used in smartphones, cars and other electronics.

According to Bitter Smith, there is a chance more chip manufacturers will come to the Valley for business. These local manufacturers will guarantee the U.S. has a domestic supplier of chips to ensure that another potential global chip shortage wouldn’t affect the American economy.

“We are projecting that by 2030, there will be another nearly 115,000 jobs available in this this component. We also know that… semiconductors are the second-ranked Arizona export at about 3.5 billion dollars,” Bitter Smith said.

More information on MCCCD semiconductor training programs

According to Bitter Smith, the credits students receive in the semiconductor training program will be transferable to any of Arizona’s public universities. Maricopa Community Colleges District is one of the largest community college districts in the nation which now offers bachelor’s degrees in a variety of other majors.

The new semiconductor program will be housed at the Gateway Central City campus, but there are currently different semiconductor training programs throughout the Valley within the college district.

“This particular fabrication program will be ready to launch in early 2027. We have to build the facility and it’ll be a full state-of-the-art mock clean room, which will help for that training process,” Bitter Smith said.

Anyone interested in the semiconductor trainings offered at MCCCD can find information on the website.