What We Learned Evaluating California’s Semiconductor Workforce Initiative

Over the past year, QA Commons served as the external evaluator for the SEMI Foundation’s California High Road to Microelectronics (HRTM) initiative. Funded by the California Workforce Development Board, the initiative brought together leading semiconductor employers, community colleges, workforce organizations, and training providers to support both individuals seeking to enter the semiconductor industry and employees participating in employer-sponsored training programs. Together, these efforts supported nearly 600 individuals through training and workforce-development experiences related to semiconductor manufacturing and related fields, substantially exceeded participation goals, and strengthened connections among employers, educators, and workforce partners across California.

As evaluators, our role was to collect data, analyze outcomes, and provide feedback to support continuous improvement. But like many of the best evaluation projects, we left with a deeper understanding of the questions we care about most: How do people develop workplace capability? What contributes to career advancement? And what does it actually take to translate education and training into economic mobility?

Here are four lessons that stood out.

1. The best technical employees do more than technical work 

When most people think about semiconductor manufacturing, they think about highly specialized technical skills. And those skills certainly matter. Participants learned about manufacturing systems, automation, electronics, process control, quality systems, and semiconductor production processes.

What surprised us was how often employers emphasized something else.

When employers described the workers they most valued, they repeatedly returned to capabilities such as troubleshooting, communication, collaboration, adaptability, and problem-solving. They talked about employees who could identify issues before they became problems, work effectively across teams, continuously improve processes, and navigate increasingly complex production environments.

In other words, employers weren’t describing “soft skills” that sit alongside technical work. They were describing capabilities that are embedded within technical work.

This is something we increasingly see across industries. The more complex the work becomes, the more important judgment, communication, and collaboration become.

2. Workplace capabilities develop through authentic practice

One of the clearest findings from the SEMI initiative was the value participants placed on learning experiences that required them to apply knowledge in realistic situations. Whether through simulations, team-based projects, or applied problem-solving exercises, participants consistently highlighted opportunities to work through authentic challenges rather than simply learn about them.

For QA Commons, this finding extends beyond semiconductor manufacturing. Students do not develop communication, teamwork, initiative, professionalism, or judgment simply by hearing about them. These capabilities emerge when learners take responsibility for meaningful work, collaborate with others, navigate ambiguity, receive feedback, and reflect on their experiences.

The specific context may vary. In one setting, it may be a cleanroom simulation. In another, it may be a theater production, research project, design studio, internship, or community partnership. What matters is not the industry itself. What matters is that learners are asked to apply knowledge, exercise judgment, and take responsibility for outcomes.

The lesson is not that every program should look more like workforce training. The lesson is that workplace capabilities are often developed through experiences that require learners to do more than acquire knowledge. They require learners to use it.

3. Skills alone do not create opportunity

Many participants successfully completed their programs, earned credentials, and developed new technical capabilities. Yet some still struggled to gain immediate traction in the labor market. In response, project partners strengthened career-readiness supports, including resume-development resources and job-search preparation.

This response aligns closely with an idea central to QA Commons’ work: A credential is not self-executing.

Developing skills and credentials is only part of the challenge. People must also learn how to identify, pursue, and navigate opportunities.

Technical knowledge matters. Credentials matter. But career success is also influenced by understanding how hiring processes (including applicant tracking systems) work, recognizing opportunities, communicating one’s value, navigating workplace expectations, and making informed career decisions.

Workforce development often focuses on helping people acquire skills. Increasingly, we believe it must also help people understand how to translate those skills into opportunity.

4. Placement is not the same thing as mobility.

One aspect of the initiative left us with as many questions as answers.

The project included both individuals seeking to enter the semiconductor industry and employees participating in employer-sponsored training programs. This provided a rare opportunity to observe workforce development from two perspectives simultaneously: how people gain entry into an industry and how employers develop talent after hiring.

What we could not fully see, however, was the pathway between the two.

We know that many entry-level positions in California’s semiconductor industry fall below living-wage thresholds for families. We also know that employers invest significant resources in developing existing employees. What we know much less about is who gains access to those advancement opportunities, how advancement decisions are made, and whether today’s entry-level workers ultimately reach higher-wage roles.

Workforce development often focuses on helping people obtain employment. Increasingly, we wonder whether equal attention should be paid to understanding advancement, progression, and economic mobility after hiring.

Put differently, getting someone into the industry may be only the first chapter of the story.

Why This Project Matters

As the United States works to expand domestic semiconductor manufacturing and strengthen its economic competitiveness, employers, educators, and policymakers are grappling with an important question: How do we prepare people not only to enter these jobs, but to succeed and advance within them over time?

Projects like California’s High Road to Microelectronics initiative provide valuable opportunities to test workforce-development strategies, learn from implementation, and better understand the factors that contribute to long-term career success. One of the strengths of the initiative was its ability to bring together employers, educators, workforce organizations, and training providers around a shared workforce challenge. By supporting both individuals seeking entry into the industry and employees already working within it, the initiative created opportunities to examine workforce development from multiple perspectives and identify lessons that extend beyond any single program or training model.

For QA Commons, the project reinforced—and in some cases sharpened—questions that have shaped our work for more than a decade. Technical skills, credentials, and educational attainment alone do not fully explain career outcomes. Workplace effectiveness, advancement, and economic mobility are influenced by a broader set of capabilities, experiences, and opportunities that often remain invisible within traditional educational models.

The SEMI initiative provided an opportunity to examine those dynamics in a new industry context and deepen our understanding of the factors that help people translate learning into long-term career success. Just as importantly, it allowed us to observe workforce development from multiple perspectives: learners seeking entry into an industry, employers investing in talent development, and training providers working to bridge the two.

We are grateful to the SEMI Foundation and its partners for allowing us to learn alongside them. Just as importantly, we appreciate their commitment to using evaluation not simply as a reporting requirement, but as a tool for learning, improvement, and field-building.

The semiconductor industry may be unique. The lessons about human development, workplace success, and economic mobility are not.