Austin Community College collected a $7.5M grant to assist in the development of new semiconductor programs as part of a collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Institute of Electronics. ACC’s semiconductor programs are set to launch in January 2025. So far, ACC has received an $11.25M slice of an $840M Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant to build a semiconductor research and development facility at UTA.
ACC will train workers who will support the UTA facility. Eighteen academic institutions are involved in the project, but ACC is the only community college among them. ACC has had a semiconductor program in place for 10 years. Because of this, it was included in the consortium, and will train a semiconductor manufacturing workforce that is expected to grow in the area.
The new programs will train manufacturing technicians, who will work not only at the new UTA facility, but also for semiconductor manufacturers that have moved into the area or will move to Austin to be close to the UTA center.
$11M is a lot of money to develop programs at the community college level, but it illustrates what I recently wrote about: economic development comes about because colleges build the needed workforce first, and use that capacity to attract new investment, new employers, and new industries into the area.
In Michigan, the mean annual wage for semiconductor technicians is about $50,000. Attracting more technology investment to Washtenaw County could leverage the presence of UM, EMU, and WCC to help create a robust technology industry here. In addition to creating jobs that pay well enough for workers to live in Washtenaw County, it would also help us retain our young adult workforce. Currently, Michigan is the only net loser among states for young adult workers.
Semiconductor programs are only one example of high-wage jobs
Semiconductor manufacturing and related programs are just one example of the high-wage, high-demand programs WCC should be working toward. Clean energy programs; agricultural programs (including urban farming); infrastructure; water management; healthcare; skilled trades; and public administration all offer ample opportunities for students to score living-wage employment here in Washtenaw County.
Developing high-wage programs in Washtenaw County is essential to retaining our young adult workforce. Washtenaw County’s far higher cost of living and limited industry makes it exceptionally difficult for young workers to find employment opportunities that pay well enough to remain here, and commuting to Washtenaw County each day from their homes in Livingston, Monroe, or Wayne County gets old fast. (If you’re under the impression that Ypsilanti and Eastern Washtenaw County are still affordable, you need to get out more.)
WCC has to be part of the solution when it comes to developing high wage jobs and attracting new industries. Employers will not set up shop and wait patiently while we train their workforce. That’s been the strategy for quite a while here and it just doesn’t work. It’s time to try something different.
ACC chose to be out front, and they’ve been rewarded with more than $11M in direct investment in their campus and programs. Of the two strategies, I like ACC’s approach better.
Photo Credit: Oregon State University, via Flickr
