This is part of the US chip maker’s effort to improve human resources to serve its factory in HCM City Hi-tech Park.

The curriculum was compiled by a group of high-ranking experts from Intel USA and professors at Arizona State University. It is now used at Arizona State University, which trains and supplies the largest number of engineers for Intel USA.

Intel Vietnam said this is the first step in long-term co-operation programmes between Intel and technological universities in Vietnam that would introduce the curriculum from the US.

Thity-five lecturers from five local universities, HCM City Technology University, Hanoi Technology University, Da Nang Technology University, the HCM City University of Natural Sciences and the HCM City technical Teacher Training University, will attend a course to research the curriculum.

In 2006, Intel announced it will invest US$1 billion in its micro-chip plant in Vietnam. The factory, which will employ 4,000 people, is now being built and will become operational in the fourth quarter of 2009.

However, Intel Vietnam is having difficulty finding qualified workers and engineers.

The micro-chip plant is the seventh in Intel’s system of factories. Others are based in Penang and Kulim (Malaysia), Cavite (the Philippines), Shanghai and Chengdu (China) and San Jose (Costa Rica).