A semiconductor in the shape of the U.S. flag

Report: The federal CHIPS legislation is a massive workforce opportunity

Brookings: ‘One of the most important workforce development laws in years’
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The federal CHIPS and Science Act – known for its focus on increasing U.S. semiconductor manufacturing – is “also one of the most important workforce development laws in years,” according to new research from Brookings.

Co-authored by senior fellows Martha Ross and Mark Muro, How federal, state, and local leaders can leverage the CHIPS and Science Act as a landmark workforce opportunity notes, 33 of the act’s programs support STEM-related education, training, and outreach in at least some way.

In addition, the law puts an emphasis on skilled tech jobs that do not require a college degree. “Key programs…integrate economic and workforce development, as they too rarely are.”

Ross says, “The law truly forces workforce intermediaries to work more closely with industry.”

According to the report, “Both the semiconductor industry specifically and the advanced sector more broadly report persistent challenges in securing STEM professionals and technicians,” including engineers and computer scientists with four-year degrees and skilled technicians with associate degrees.

“The upshot is that too few American students now pursue university STEM degrees and stick with STEM work, or train at community colleges and other settings to obtain the skills needed for technician roles in advanced industry work.”

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and Oxford Economics finds 67,000 of the projected 115,000 new chip jobs – expected by 2030 – could be unfilled given current trends.

“The law authorizes the National Science Foundation (NSF) to spend $2.6 billion per year for STEM education and workforce development over the next five years.

But the authors point out the law’s workforce components are “overshadowed by its chip subsidies,” making determining the exact amounts and programmatic nature of the resources “challenging in some cases and impossible in others.”

Martha Ross, senior fellow, Brookings (l), Mark Muro, senior fellow, Brookings (r)
Calls to Action

Federal, state, and local stakeholders cannot lose the opportunity presented by the CHIPS and Science Act. The report says, “Congress needs to build out the funding base for the new skills surge” and federal agencies must communicate “a set of principles and best practices” in their support of workforce development.

State and local officials need to “assemble and build out sustainable partnerships and systems that serve employers and workers differently from business-as-usual, and that can last beyond the law’s current investment in training.

“Above all, they need to become co-investors in the construction of a new system.”

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.