Students in the Engineering Technician Training program at MiraCosta College got an exciting announcement in their class this summer.

Their $7,000 tuition was being paid through a grant from the SEMI Foundation, which supports the semiconductor industry. They would also receive $500 to pay for the cost of their capstone project, $1,000 to pay for necessities that would help them get a job, and another $1,000 for completing the intensive four-month program.

Engineering technology instructor Kate MacArevey-Colello said the 15 students in the class were at first stunned to learn the news, then elated.

“People were really excited,” she said. “This is a real game changer for some of them.”

A similar offer was extended to students who enroll in the next cohort that started on September 2. Students are selected for the course following assessments and an interview.

The engineering technician training program is a full-time program that integrates theory and application in mechanical, electrical, and electronic systems, fluid power, automation, robotics, and computer software. The program is 75 percent hands-on, with job placement assistance and paid internships available. It leads to career paths in fields such as mechanical, electrical/electronic systems, pneumatics, and automation.

MacArevey-Colello said that because students must attend the class all day, many students are working evening shifts to support themselves.

“That can be impossible for a lot of people,” she said. “This grant enables somebody who wouldn’t be able to take the class to take it.”

The partnership between MiraCosta College and the SEMI Foundation came about in large part because of a Google search by Omar Baza, senior specialist for workforce training and operations at the SEMI Foundation. He said MiraCosta’s Technology Career Institute kept coming up when he searched online for apprenticeship programs in San Diego County. Baza and Anissa Hamdon-Morison, training and curriculum manager at the SEMI Foundation, reached out to TCI, and he was connected with MacArevey-Colello and program supervisor Carisa Chavez.

After visiting the class on a day when students were showing the individual projects they were pursuing as part of the program, Baza and Hamdon-Morison were impressed that the program has a high student completion rate and a high rate of placing students in jobs.

“Omar and I sat down outside on the steps and said, ‘We have to work with them. We have to make this happen,” Hamdon-Morison said.

The SEMI Foundation is able to offer tuition and funding assistance to MiraCosta students through a $4.6 million workforce development grant the foundation received from the state. Baza said the foundation hopes to continue the funding to MiraCosta as long as grant money is available.

Studies show that the semiconductor industry has an estimated 1 million worker shortage in the United States, with many of the jobs in the technician role. San Diego County is considered a priority sector for the industry, Hamdon-Morison said.

Nadav Shaked was one of the students who learned that he would be receiving the funding. Shaked had a job selling diamonds when he decided to switch careers and train to be an engineering technician.

He said he was particularly happy to learn that he would receive $500 for his capstone project. He’s working on making a device so that pianists can turn pages of sheet music with a nod of their head while they are playing a piano piece.

“The whole class found out together about the good news,” Shaked said. “It was a very happy hour. There were a lot of smiles. I was very happy and content.”