West Valley College adds a 15-week certificate to train semiconductor technicians, no four-year degree needed

People who want a job in the chip industry without spending four years in college will soon have a fast option close to San Jose.  West Valley College, the community college in Saratoga, approved a 15-week semiconductor technician certificate last month, the Mercury News reported Nov. 11.  Classes will formally begin in fall 2027 and spring 2028, the paper said.

The college says the program is meant for adult learners, career changers and other newcomers, and that it aims to train and certify at least 120 workers a year.  Graduates would be ready for technician jobs in chip factories and other advanced manufacturing plants, the college says, including running and maintaining equipment, keeping production processes on track, taking precise measurements and running building systems.

The certificate is designed to qualify for Workforce Pell, a federal grant that helps students with low incomes pay for short job-training programs, according to the college.  It is also built to stack, meaning students can later apply the credits toward longer certificates, an associate degree or a transfer to a four-year university.

The program has three courses and includes hands-on lab training at the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility, a university clean room where researchers build tiny chip-scale devices, the Mercury News reported.  The college lists the facility as a partner, along with the SEMI Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the chip industry’s main trade group, and the companies ASML, IBM, Lam Research and Shinwa Controls.  The college also plans to offer classes to high school students through dual enrollment, which lets teens earn college credit.

The work is paid for by a $3.9 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, which West Valley announced in January.  The college said then that it was the only community college in California, and one of 18 schools nationwide, to win an award in that round.  The grant runs through December 2029 and also pays for a semiconductor fabrication lab on campus.

The industry is expected to add nearly 189,000 U.S. jobs by 2030, according to projections cited by the Mercury News.

West Valley College is part of the West Valley-Mission Community College District, which also runs Mission College in Santa Clara.

Source:  West Valley College, FAAST Workforce Program page; West Valley College news release, Jan. 15, 2026; board approval, course count, lab site, start dates and job projection as reported by the Mercury News, Nov. 11, 2026.