"The Hottest High School in Korea": Inquiries Surge for Specialized Semiconductor School

Amid the ongoing semiconductor boom fueled by the artificial intelligence (AI) craze, The New York Times (NYT) has published a feature article spotlighting Chungbuk Semiconductor High School in Eumseong-gun, North Chungcheong Province.

The newspaper introduced the school as the oldest of the four Meister high schools in Korea specialized in the semiconductor industry, having been designated as such in 2010 for semiconductor equipment.

Located about two hours from Seoul, the school is equipped with dormitories for its 300 students and six mock training facilities for semiconductor equipment.

As Korea’s semiconductor industry, led by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, enjoys its greatest boom in history due to the construction rush for AI data centers, interest in the school has also surged.


The newspaper reported that admission inquiries have more than tripled over the past year, and requests for visits from those seeking to learn from the school’s operational model—including crews from Chinese state-run broadcasters—are arriving incessantly.

Principal Seo Woon-seok told the NYT, "It feels like our school has become the hottest school in Korea right now."

In particular, the NYT 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 considered as difficult as "winning the lottery."

The report 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 prepare for these exams from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day for a full month.

Seeing graduates return to the school and treat others to meals while talking about receiving performance bonuses worth hundreds of millions of won is 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 companies mentioned last year that Samsung Electronics would create 60,000 jobs over five years and SK Hynix up to 20,000 new jobs annually, the newspaper reported 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 semiconductor equipment 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 Chungbuk Semiconductor High School website, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.