NASSCOM Semiconductor Platform Opens Chip Education to 50,000 Indians Annually
NASSCOM has launched the NASSCOM Semiconductor Skilling Platform, an online learning programme targeting 50,000 learners per year with accessible, industry-aligned courses in semiconductor engineering disciplines. The platform, developed in partnership with Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys, Siemens EDA, and SEMI India, offers courses at multiple levels of depth and specialisation covering chip design fundamentals, EDA tool workflows including the Cadence Virtuoso and Synopsys ICC2 environments used in professional chip design, VLSI physical design covering placement, routing, clock tree synthesis, and timing closure, and semiconductor manufacturing process basics covering the unit process steps of wafer fabrication, OSAT assembly, and test. The platform provides free access for students at government engineering colleges and subsidised access for employees of small semiconductor design companies and startups, with full-price commercial pricing for larger organisations that fund their own training programmes.
Course Content and Industry Alignment
The NASSCOM platform's course content was developed through working groups involving practising engineers from NASSCOM member companies who reviewed draft material against the skill requirements of entry-level and mid-career semiconductor roles. The EDA tool workflow courses, which give learners hands-on experience operating the Cadence and Synopsys design tools that are industry standards, are a particularly high-value component because familiarity with specific EDA tools is often a direct requirement in job postings for chip design roles. Academic teaching in EDA tools has historically been constrained by the high cost of EDA tool licences for university use, but the partnership with Cadence and Synopsys provides the platform with a cloud-based EDA tool environment that learners can access through a browser without local installation, removing the infrastructure barrier that has limited EDA tool exposure for students outside well-resourced institutions. The manufacturing process content addresses a gap in India's existing chip education landscape, where design-focused training is relatively abundant but manufacturing process knowledge is rare despite the growing number of semiconductor manufacturing roles being created by India's OSAT expansion.
Learner Segments and Accessibility Design
The platform's 50,000 annual learner target is designed to be reached through three distinct segments. The first segment is engineering students at government colleges across India, particularly those who are enrolled in electrical, electronics, and computer science programmes but whose institutions lack the faculty expertise or EDA tool infrastructure to offer semiconductor-specific courses. These students receive free access funded through a NASSCOM consortium contribution from platform partners. The second segment is working professionals in software, electronics, and mechanical engineering who want to transition into the semiconductor industry, for whom the platform provides a structured pathway to acquire the foundational knowledge that makes an industry transition credible to semiconductor company hiring managers. The third segment is employees of small semiconductor design companies and startups who want to upskill in disciplines beyond their current expertise, supported by subsidised access pricing. The platform is available in English and will add Hindi and Tamil interfaces in its second year to improve accessibility for learners in non-metro locations.
Assessment, Certification, and Industry Adoption
The NASSCOM platform provides competency assessments and completion certificates for each course and programme, developed in consultation with NASSCOM member companies to ensure that the certifications carry recognition value in hiring decisions. NASSCOM is working with member companies to include NASSCOM semiconductor certifications in their candidate screening criteria for entry-level roles, creating a direct pathway from platform completion to employment consideration. The platform tracks learner progress and assessment performance data that NASSCOM will publish as an annual semiconductor skills report, providing the semiconductor industry and government with visibility into the pipeline of skills being built through the platform and the discipline-level gaps that persist despite the training programme. This data will be used to prioritise curriculum additions and to inform the Semcon 2.0 programme's curriculum planning in subsequent years.
