Intel to recruit at Ohio colleges, high schools for jobs at New Albany plants
CHANDLER,ARIZ. — Intel says it will start recruiting this fall for the 3,000 workers it needs for its two plants that will open in New Albany in 2025.
The company plans to send the hires to Arizona for 12 to 18 months to train before moving them back to Ohio for the opening of the plants here.
“We’re going to hire early. We need to get the workforce trained,” Cindi Harper, Intel’s vice president of talent planning and acquisition, told Columbus-area reporters last week who had come to this Phoenix suburb to visit Intel’s operations.
The semiconductor company announced in January its $20 billion investment for the region, the largest in state history. Construction officially kicks off this fall and so will recruiting, Harper said.
Intel plans to be on the campuses of community and four-year colleges and universities throughout Ohio and the Midwest looking for workers. It also plans to work with high school programs, she said.
“There are some pretty talented people coming out of high school programs,’’ she said.
Harper said she expects job offers to come in the spring, after the fall start to recruiting.
Intel then plans to send workers to its Arizona operations for a 12- to 18-month training program.
“By the time the factory is ready, they can come back to Ohio,’’ she said.
Harper estimates that 2,000 of the 3,000 workers it needs when the plants open will come from Ohio and elsewhere in the Midwest.
The remaining third of workers will include experienced staff that will move to Ohio from other Intel operations in places such as Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon. Intel has indicated that some workers native to Ohio would like to use the new plants as a reason to go home.
“It takes time to get the workforce up and running,” she said. “You can’t have a new factory with all brand new people.’’
Of the 3,000 jobs, about 70% will be technicians that require two-year degrees and about a quarter are jobs that require engineering or computer science degrees. The remaining jobs include supply chain positions and other support positions. Intel has said the average worker at the New Albany operation will make $135,000 a year.
A majority of the technical positions will come from a pipeline developed with local schools, she said.
Harper also has been tasked with having a 50-50 mix of men and women in the New Albany workforce.
“To do that we’re getting very creative on how do we get women interested in technical positions who may not be in the field today or may not be in the school system today,” she said.
Harper said Intel also will emphasize hiring veterans who have the skills that work well on the semiconductor factory floor. Workers with disabilities and minority candidates also will be a priority.
Intel has committed $100 million over the next 10 years in local and national higher education programs.
These investments will establish semiconductor manufacturing education and research collaborations with universities, community colleges and technical education institutions in Ohio and across the United States.
Intel has provided money for science and technical programs for middle school girls and historically black colleges and universities.
Harper said even though Ohio has no current semiconductor operations, the existing curriculums offered at schools and universities aren’t that far from what Intel needs. At the same time, workers who have backgrounds as heating and cooling technicians, electricians, mechanics and similar positions can be successful candidates for Intel.
Arizona plant manager Jim Evers, who will be in charge in Ohio, said Intel is looking for workers with a variety of backgrounds. Workers can begin in entry level positions and work their way up.
“We can put that together in many different fashions to make that work,” he said.