Capital Region’s NORD-TECH aims to boost semiconductor job growth by 300,000

Millions of dollars in state and federal grants have been allocated to companies in the Capital Region to expand the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

Finding the workers is one of the biggest hurdles in making the region a hub for new technology.

NORD-TECH, a coalition of semi-chip companies, colleges, and universities in the region met at RPI on Thursday to find ways to build the student-to-workforce pipeline.

Industry leaders anticipate that over 300,000 jobs will be needed in the next decade to make the investments successful; technicians, engineers, and computer scientists are just some of the jobs companies will need.

“The sense of those ideas seems to be that it’s going to take a village and more; it’s going to take all of us to collaborate and work together to be successful in the chips and semiconductors in the United States,” said Shekhar Garde, RPI Dean of Engineering.

The seminars were learning opportunities for students interested in the semiconductor field.

Dan Fiumara is starting his master’s program at RPI for Integrated Circuit Design and attended the seminars on Thursday.

“I find these conferences helpful to become aware of the opportunities that are available to me,” said Fiumara. “All of these companies are interested in workforce development and it’s good to know about the programs that exist so that I can take advantage of them.”

Leaders and experts from IBM, NY Creates, Cornell University, and U-Albany were just some of the speakers at the conference.