Malaysia records 22,849 trained under semiconductor talent programmes
The programmes contribute to the National Semiconductor Strategy’s target of 60,000 highly skilled engineers by 2030.
Training initiatives for Malaysia’s semiconductor industry had reached 22,849 people by the third quarter of 2026, according to Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani. He told the Dewan Rakyat on Oct 21 that educational institutions and technical training providers were delivering the programmes.
Johari cautioned that increasing the number of trained workers must go alongside developing expertise suited to the industry’s needs. Under the National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS), Malaysia aims to develop 60,000 highly skilled engineers by 2030.
Figures detailing where trainees were placed across subsectors, and how many remained in the local ecosystem, were still incomplete, he said. MITI is working to compile those figures with implementing agencies, educational institutions, industry participants and the Human Resources and Higher Education ministries.
The initiatives include the Engineering Talent for Semiconductor Industry programme, which CREST implements in collaboration with the Human Resource Development Corporation. Its focus includes retraining, workforce skills development and helping graduates become more employable.
University partnerships include work with Intel on a syllabus for advanced electronic packaging and with ViTrox on an electronic engineering franchise programme. A curriculum being developed with Micron covers semiconductor assembly alongside testing, marking and packaging.
Johari also said the Manpower Department is setting up the KESUMA Semiconductor Academy at the Malaysia-Japan Technical Institute in Penang. The academy is intended to increase training capacity for IC fabrication, advanced IC packaging and IC design.
