Lorain County Community College got a huge boost Jan. 21 with the announcement by Intel that it will build a $20 billion chip manufacturing plant in Licking County.
Intel claims the project will produce what “will be the most advanced manufacturing operation in the world,” according to background information released on the project by LCCC.
LCCC officials say the college is set up nicely to benefit from Intel’s announcement as it is the only school in the state that offers a bachelor of applied science in microelectronic manufacturing systems (MEMS) and has since 2018.
It also offers an associate degree in the same field.
Graduates from MEMS are in high demand and make a starting salary of $65,000 a year when they graduate, according to Tracy Green, LCCC’s vice president of Strategic Instructional Development.
So, in demand is the need for workers with any MEMS training, that first-year students in the LCCC program often are placed in paid internships paying $15 to $20 an hour shortly after starting classes.
The MEMS program also is “the only program offered in the state of Ohio that directly correlates to the semiconductor industry that Intel’s operation will bring,” LCCC said in a news release.
The school hosted a watch party of Gov. Mike DeWine’s announcement of Intel coming to Ohio.
During the announcement, Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel shouted out, “Today, Silicon Heartland begins,” the nickname for Ohio’s Intel project.
That triggered a spontaneous round of applause and shouts from a clutch of men in blue lab coats who watched the announcement from a front-row seat in the Richard Desich SMART Center, where the MEMS classes are taught.
Professor Johnny Vanderford said LCCC started offering an associate degree in MEMS in 2013.
“For the first four years of our degree’s existence, everyone who went through the degree was hired,” Vanderford said. “And the majority of students were working part-time in a program, where they work three days a week and go to school two days a week.
“Eighty-five percent of our current students who have at least a semester of experience are working.”
LCCC’s MEMS program is associated with 80 companies in Northeast Ohio.
Intel coming to Ohio is going to cause a ripple effect and a huge demand for people trained to work in the microprocessing industry, Green noted.
“All the companies we are currently working with, are going to see greater activity and need,” she said. “So, that’s going to create new jobs and growth of jobs in Lorain County and the communities associated with this.”
Semiconductors have become the commodity in the United States’ economy in recent years.
Asian countries currently manufacture 75 percent of the chips in the world.
Disruptions in the supply chain caused by the coronavirus pandemic slowed the export of the chips to America over the past two years crippling the auto industry and sending ripple effects throughout the supply chain.
“A shortage of domestically produced semiconductors (or chips) is strangling major sectors of our national and state economy, harming businesses and consumers and threatening our economic and military security,” DeWine’s office said in a statement that announced Intel’s Ohio expansion project.
DeWine said Ohio and Intel started talks on the project in May 2021.
Forty states were competing for the business.
DeWine said he got the news on Christmas Day that Intel was coming to Licking County.
“It’s a major win for Ohio,” he said.
Intel said it plans to build two chip manufacturing facilities in the first stage of the project.
That will bring in 3,000 Intel jobs that pay on average $135,000 a year.
Construction of the facilities will create 7,000 jobs, according to the state of Ohio.
Intel plans to invest $100 billion when the project is completed.
“We fought, we won to bring these jobs to Ohio,” DeWine said.
