▲ Chungbuk Semiconductor High School
Amid the semiconductor boom fueled by the artificial intelligence (AI) craze, The New York Times (NYT) has published an in-depth report on Chungbuk Semiconductor High School, located in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province.
The newspaper introduced the school as the oldest of the four Meister high schools in South Korea specialized in the semiconductor industry, having been designated as a Meister school for semiconductor equipment in 2010.
Located about two hours from Seoul, the school is equipped with dormitories for all 300 students and six simulation facilities for semiconductor equipment training.
As South Korea's semiconductor industry, led by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, enjoys its greatest boom ever due to the construction rush for AI data centers, interest in the school has also surged.
The NYT reported that inquiries for admission have more than tripled over the past year, and requests for visits from outsiders looking to learn from the school's operating model—including crews from Chinese state-run broadcasters—are constant.
Principal Seo Woon-seok told the NYT, "It feels like our school has become the hottest school in Korea right now."
The NYT specifically mentioned the large performance bonuses recently received by employees at Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, noting that landing a job at these two companies is generally compared to winning the lottery.
It explained that every year, 20 top-performing first-year students at the school are selected for an internship program that includes scholarships from the two companies.
Other students go through a fierce, nationwide general recruitment process involving exams and interviews. One teacher noted that students spend an entire month preparing for these exams from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
When graduates return to the school after starting their careers and talk about receiving performance bonuses worth hundreds of millions of won, often treating their juniors to meals, it serves as a moment that confirms to current students that they made the right choice.
"It is not easy to hear a former student who has been working for a year talk about a bonus that is larger than my entire annual salary," Principal Seo said.
Meanwhile, the NYT also shed light on the uncertain job prospects underlying the semiconductor industry boom.
While the government has pledged to foster the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster into the world's largest high-tech semiconductor hub through comprehensive support, and Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix mentioned last year that they would create up to 60,000 and 20,000 new jobs annually, respectively, the newspaper noted that some experts are skeptical about the feasibility of these job creation targets.
The concern is that semiconductor manufacturing is a capital-intensive, rather than labor-intensive, industry, and as production processes become increasingly automated, the total number of jobs could actually decrease—a reality already being felt by subcontractors.
A manager at XT, a maintenance subcontractor for Samsung Electronics, told the NYT, "Actually, it has become harder to hire new employees this year," adding that the trickle-down effect of the semiconductor boom barely reaches subcontractors.
"If equipment with advanced self-cleaning functions is introduced, our jobs might disappear in the future," the manager said, expressing anxiety.
(Photo: Captured from the Chungbuk Semiconductor High School website, Yonhap News)
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