National Development Council

Analysis of Current Situation

1. There is a growing shortage of STEM-related talent, with an urgent need to focus on cultivating digitally-skilled local talent
2. The competition for international talent and the pressing domestic demand for professional talent make it urgent to actively recruit international key talent
3. Domestic talent lacks international competitiveness, and urgently needs heightened English proficiency and international vision

Program Objectives and Strategic Framework

• Vision: To make Taiwan into a global talent hub

This program maps out three leading strategies, eight main fronts, and 21 concrete measures for fostering and recruiting talent needed for national development, to be carried out through cooperation among enterprise, government, academia and research institutions, targeted at enhancing the competitiveness of Taiwan’s industrial sector and realizing the vision of making Taiwan into a global talent hub. 

• Objectives

1. To cultivate domestic digital talent and build up high-quality human capital: Speed up the cultivation of talent needed for the digital transformation of industries, build digital competitiveness, and effectively respond to industries’ urgent demand for digital technology talent.

2. To recruit key international talent and create an international talent hub:  Vigorously develop and implement means for globally recruiting and retaining talent, to bring together elite talent in various fields from around the world, to inject new impetus into the transformation, upgrading and internationalized development of Taiwan’s industries, and make Taiwan into a key power of the global economy.

3. To enhance Taiwan’s talent competitiveness by deepening homegrown talent’s bilingual ability and international vision: Promote the internationalization of higher education, strengthen the English proficiency of domestic talent, and increase opportunities for participating in international exchanges, to mold an internationalized mindset in Taiwan’s professional talent.



Source: National Development Council

Specific Measures

• ​Strategy 1: Cultivating domestic digital talent

          1.Expanding the capacity of higher education

• Gradually expanding the annual enrollment quotas of STEM departments and graduate schools
• Relaxing student-teacher ratio requirements for STEM departments and graduate schools
• Expanding the faculty and teaching capacity of STEM departments and graduate schools

         2.Promoting industry-academia collaboration in talent cultivation

• Pushing through legislation to establish national academies for key fields of research
• Strengthening talent cultivation for key industrie

         3.Boosting enterprise human capital

• Refining the application of Occupational Competency Standard(OCS) , and enhancing the digital industrial talent skills assessment
• Prompting enterprises to self-invest in conducting staff training

• Strategy 2: Recruiting key international talent

          1.​Precisely matching talent recruitment to industries’ needs

• Inventorizing important industries’ demand for key international talent, and carrying out special-case talent recruitment projects
• Strengthen the recruitment of international research talent to match the development needs of important industries
• Optimize the national talent recruitment portal and related platforms to create a national brand image

         2.More strongly attracting foreign students to key fields of study in Taiwan

• Expanding the enrollment of students from New Southbound countries, Hong Kong and Macau, and of overseas compatriot and foreign students, in key-field departments, and increasing related incentives
• Expanding the enrollment of international students in Taiwan’s Joint Degree programs and industry-oriented master’s and doctoral programs in departments related to key fields of study

         3.Optimizing the environment for foreign talent to work and live in Taiwan

• Improving the legal framework for work and residency of foreigners in Taiwan
• Optimizing and internationalizing the startup ecology, to attract entrepreneurial talent to come to Taiwan
• Construct a sufficient and satisfactory education environment to meet the educational needs of the children of overseas talent coming to Taiwan

• Strategy 3: Deepening bilingual capability and international perspective

         1.Reinforcing the English proficiency of homegrown talent in conjunction
            with  the Bilingual Nation Policy

• ​Promoting more use of English in university teaching, and increasing English-taught courses
• Strengthening the recruitment of teachers and researchers from English-speaking countries

         2.Strengthening international exchanges of talent

• Encouraging teachers, students and high-level talent to go overseas to take part in research, take up internships, undertake training, or study for degrees, and increasing related subsidies/quotas
• Promoting cooperation between academia and industry in planning international forums, enterprise-tailored lectures, or other such training exchanges for high-level talent
• Promoting training and international connections for talent in specialized fields of expertise

Expected Benefits

1. Amply supplying the domestic and foreign elite talent needed by Taiwan’s industries, to propel industrial growth, spur economic development, and raise the nation’s overall competitiveness.
2. Increasing both the quality and quantity of digital talent cultivated by higher education, combining resources of industry and academia to co-cultivate professional talent needed for developing the digital economy, and guiding enterprise investment in talent grooming, to strengthen our people’s digital skills, create competitive advantages and employment opportunities, and drive the digital transformation of industries.
3. Ensuring that the international talent needed by Taiwan can come and stay, supplying the key international talent needed for the development of our country’s important industries, helping promote the upgrading and transformation of industries, giving a boost to enterprise investment, adding vigor to job creation, and sustaining economic growth.
4. Enhancing the competitiveness of Taiwan’s domestic talent by raising their professional bilingual skills, strengthening integration with the world, building an internationalized environment, and supporting our promising talent to go overseas to gain knowledge and experience that they can bring back for beneficial utilization in Taiwan.