TAIPEI, Taiwan: Faced with a shrinking population and soaring global demand for semiconductors, Taiwan is turning to international students to help fill a widening talent gap in its most critical industry.

At a summer camp in Taipei, 16-year-old Nicolas Chueh, dressed in a white lab coat and mask, listened closely as a guide explained how Taiwan's chips are made. The student, who lives in Singapore and holds dual Taiwan-Belgian citizenship, was one of dozens of teenagers from eight countries attending a camp designed to spark early interest in chipmaking.

"I really enjoy playing video games. So I'm really just always using these semiconductor products," Chueh said. "I want to lean into it to some extent because I think it will be crucial in the future with AI."

Organized by U.S. chip design software company Synopsys, the camp is part of Taiwan's growing effort to court young international talent. For the first time, the sessions were offered in both Mandarin and English, a sign of the island's urgent push to expand its workforce pipeline beyond its borders.

"There is an urgent need to strengthen STEM education from an early age," said Robert Li, chairman of Synopsys Taiwan. "That is why we are launching this initiative in Taiwan, where its strength in semiconductors meets the challenge of demographic decline."

Li said Synopsys may eventually expand its outreach globally. For now, the company charges T$33,000 (US$1,103) for English-language camps and T$10,900 for Mandarin ones.

Taiwan plays an outsized role in global semiconductor manufacturing, led by companies like TSMC, MediaTek, and UMC. However, industry job openings have surged—from around 19,000 in Q2 2020 to nearly 34,000 this year, according to local recruitment platform 104 Corporation. Filling those positions is becoming harder as the country's birth rate plummets and STEM graduates decline.

Annual births in Taiwan have fallen from over 210,000 in 2014 to around 135,000 in 2024. STEM graduates are down 15 percent over the same period, according to the Ministry of Education.

"Growth in Taiwan's semiconductor industry has been quite rapid, faster than what our schools can produce in terms of engineering talent each year," said Leuh Fang, chairman of Vanguard International Semiconductor.

In response, Taiwan's top universities and chipmakers are ramping up foreign recruitment. National Taiwan University launched an English-language global semiconductor program for undergraduates last year, now enrolling more than 40 students from 10 countries. TSMC is backing a new initiative with Germany's Saxony state to bring German students to Taiwan for study and internships.

Programs targeting younger students are also underway. In July, NYCU launched an interactive outreach program, with support from TSMC, using games and hands-on activities to make chip science fun for children as young as 10.

"The issue everyone is discussing now is where the future workforce will come from," said NYCU President Chi-Hung Lin. "If they're curious now, they won't reject it later—and some may even grow to like this kind of work."