European Chips Skills Alliance

METIS has the ambition to develop a sustainable structure for collaboration and has set out a Long-term Action Plan for the skills development of the microelectronics industry, driven by industry and academia. In order to sustain the outcomes of METIS project, in particular the developed courses and training material, to maintain and expand the existing multi-stakeholder collaboration formed during the project´s implementation the Consortium has agreed to establish an EU Chips Skills Alliance. 

Interested stakeholders can now express their interest to participate in the European Chips Skills Alliance to consolidate skills related activities, share best practices and build a strong network across Europe to jointly address the skills shortage and strengthen Europe´s competitiveness in the microelectronics sector.

SIGN UP

The Vision of the Alliance: 

By 2030 the Alliance aims at becoming a fully connected semiconductor skills community with an established VET/ academia – industry collaboration, a major platform for information exchange and monitoring of evolving skills needed by the microelectronics industry in Europe (demand side) and response mechanism by the educational sector with adapted curriculum, innovative trainings and mobility programmes (supply side). It will serve as the solid network of associated partners for building all chips skills projects in the EU. The Alliance will be recognised by the EU commission and major European semiconductor players as the major collaboration network for skills. 

The major objectives of the EU Chips Skills Alliance are to: 

  • Become the voice towards the European Commission​ on microelectronics skills; 
  • Endorse and support Pact for Skills agenda​; 
  • Sustain and further develop Industry-VET/ University network by SEMI and METIS for collaboration; 
  • Establish Skills Observatory for constant analysis and monitoring the trends effecting the industry; 
  • Become Nucleus for joint (European) projects​; 
  • Provide Joint training to support harmonisation of curricula: European Chips Skills Academy (central catalogue of courses / e-learning)​; 
  • Jointly raise awareness, and contribute to image campaign & STEM outreach​; 
  • Promote and implement Diversity, Equity and Inclusion principles across all activities; 
  • Facilitating employability across the border through establishment and mutual recognition of micro-credentials; 
  • Become Complementary network to National competence centres; 
  • New degrees more suitable for the industry; 
  • Increasing attractiveness of semiconductor industry & Inclusion of the unrepresented groups.

The Pact for Skills Executive Board was first established in 2019. The board brings together high-level representatives from the semiconductor industry in charge of talent, HR or related business fields. The board sets the vision and strategic the objectives of the Alliance. It provides guidelines and advice to SEMI and the secretariat of of the Alliance. The board meets at least twice a year.  

The Secretariat, led by SEMI, will be the major operational body of the Alliance, reporting on the activities of the Alliance to the Executive Board. It will oversee the general administration and financial sustainability of the Alliance. It will also liaise with the EU Commission speaking with one voice on behalf of the Alliance. It will also build the linkages between the activities of the Alliance and the Secretariat of the Alliance for the Semiconductors and Processors Technologies (ASPT) led by ALLPROS and the national competence centres. Once all working groups are operational, the secretariat will consist of all working group leaders under the leadership of SEMI. 

The Assembly – the overarching body, will consist of representatives from all members, getting together annually to review the Alliance´s achievements and approving the objectives for the coming year. The Assembly will become the central forum for exchange on the most important trends and challenges effecting the microelectronics industry, emerging technologies and required skills to respond to the evolving needs of the industry. 

The Following 5 working groups are proposed at the beginning: 

  1. The Skills Observatory, led by DECISION will continue screening skills trends and emerging job profiles in microelectronics by consulting a vast range of the stakeholders. It will pay a special attention to collection and consolidation of data from different sources to help quantify the talents gap Europe is facing. 
  2. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), consisting of representatives of various industrial partners, VET providers and social partners will ensure the compliance and adherence of the Alliance with the principles of diversity and equal and inclusive opportunities in microelectronics industry. It will collaborate with the national and the EU public authorities by providing recommendations on the promotion of STEM among women, raising the attractiveness and awareness of microelectronics jobs profiles and enhancing employability. 
  3. The Education, Research & Industry Network, supported by the on-going EU Chips Skills Academy project will continue collaboration between the education and the jobs world, adapting the existing trainings and developing new modules based on the identified needs of the industrial partners. 
  4. Interest & Awareness raising group will work on strengthening the image of microelectronics and raising awareness of jobs opportunities and career paths in the domain. It will focus on creating joint image campaigns, bringing together the existing good practices on promotion of STEM with a special focus on women is science and industry, showing the role models and inspiring testimonials. 
  5. Another pillar of the Alliance dedicated to inter-cluster and inter-regions collaboration will focus on interregional cooperation on various levels involving the established cluster network of the leading EU semiconductor clusters – Silicon Europe Alliance bringing the voice of the EU microelectronics industry and the currently evolving European Semiconductor Regions Alliance4. Regional & Clusters Group will serve as a platform for regions and cluster to exchange needs, ideas, and best practices in skills development on regular basis. The existing Silicon Europe Alliance consisting of 12 regional clusters will serve as a solid ground for such continuous interaction. The group will implement joint pilots:  for instance, the “Semiconductor World” and “Fabmobil” pilot projects that Silicon Saxony plans to start testing in 2024 can be multiplied to other European regions at later stages. 

This working group will also liaise with the national competence centres, which are currently under construction in member states. 

X