Foreign students fill Taiwan’s semiconductor labor shortage, but at what cost?

Vietnamese student Dang Nhut Hao, 23, from southern Dong Thap Province, joined Minghsin University of Science and Technology in 2019 under an industry-academia program.

After spending his first year learning Mandarin, he and 31 classmates were sent to Everlight Electronics, where he operated semiconductor machinery six days a week. Dang was paid the then-minimum wage of NT$23,800 ($724) per month, equivalent to an entry-level salary for factory operators.

He returned to campus in his third year, but in his fourth year, he was assigned back to the factory for machine maintenance. "Since we were either in class or at work, there wasn’t really time to study properly. Most of the time, classes were brief, just enough to complete assignments, and then we had to go back to work," he said.

In the five years leading up to 2022, 35,924 students, mostly from Southeast Asia, were enrolled in work-study programs, according to the Ministry of Education and the Overseas Community Affairs Council.

Many attended classes less than two days a week, the Taiwan Higher Education Union reported.

Some schools structure schedules to prioritize factory work, effectively turning internships into low-wage labor, according to a report by the Control Yuan, a government watchdog.

"The time spent in school is very, very little—sometimes less than two days a week, or in some cases, just one day or less," said Ping Chou, chairperson of the Taiwan Higher Education Union and a sociology professor at Nanhua University. "What's the reality? Most of their time is spent working."

Such internships fill a critical labor gap in Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, where production runs 24/7 and cannot be interrupted, Weber Chung, senior vice president at 104 Job Bank, told Rest of World.

Minghsin University recruits around 2,600 international students annually, with over 60% coming through industry-academia collaboration programs, vice president Hsin-Te Liao said.

Ryan Hartono, 25, left Indonesia at 16 to attend three years of vocational high school, followed by a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering at Cheng Shiu University in Kaohsiung. As part of his program, he was required to work at Walsin Technology Corporation every three months, inspecting and operating machines that produced semiconductor components.

During college, he worked five days a week at the factory, with only two days off—the only time he had to study. "It is more of a one-sided, simple job," Hartono said. "Most of my classmates graduated into low-skilled jobs as operators in electronics factories and fabs."

Experts warn that such programs do not prepare students for high-skilled careers. "Most of their internship work is quite low-level. It’s basically operator-level work," said Shangmao Chen, a professor at Fo Guang University and a government curriculum reviewer. "So, after graduation, I think it’s highly unlikely for these students to have any opportunity to advance to the position of an engineer."

Taiwan supplies 63% of the world’s semiconductors, powering LED bulbs, smartphones, electric cars, and AI models. With 26,000 monthly job openings in the latter half of 2024, mostly for machine operators and packaging workers, factories have increasingly turned to student interns to meet labor demands.

Taiwan plans to invest $160 million to attract 320,000 students into STEM, finance, and semiconductor fields by 2030.

Dang does not regret joining the work-study program, saying it has opened new opportunities, including a master’s program in semiconductor engineering and a part-time research internship. Now pursuing semiconductor research, he hopes to work in Taiwan for at least three years before considering a return to Vietnam. "I think I am very lucky, I was able to transition into the semiconductor field."