Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Pinoy IT engineers get better job, bigger pay
MORE and more Filipino software designers and systems engineers are now becoming world-class information technology specialists after passing a series of tough examinations given by Japanese IT engineers through the Philippine National IT Standard (PhilNits) Foundation.
Teolulo Pasawa, head of the National Economic Research and Business Assistance Center (Nerbac) - a section of the Department of Trade and Industry that extends government assistance to several IT firms in the Davao Region - bared this recently.
Pasawa said Filipino IT specialists like software designers, computer programmers and systems engineers who pass the world standards set by top Japanese IT engineers through the PhilNits exams are considered in the global job market as "professionals" and not ordinary IT workers who get lower pay.
"When they earn a PhilNits Certification after passing those difficult exams, they are considered as world-class. They are expected to do their jobs with the highest global standards, so naturally they get better jobs and bigger pay," Pasawa said.
Three PhilNits training centers had been set up nationwide in Manila and Cebu during the last four years and lately in Davao last year by the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) regional operations group in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (Meti) of Japan.
These training centers are used by the DTI to train people in the small and medium sized enterprises (MSE) to sharpen their competitive edge in the global job market, according to Trade Undersecretary Merly Cruz who heads the Regional Operations and Development Group (RODG).
"With PhilNits, we're working closely with Japan to produce world-class IT specialists among Filipinos so they can compete better in the world markets and help boost our country's economy," Cruz said.
Technical and financial support were provided by the Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro), an independent agency which provided Japanese technical experts, supplied the computer hardware and funded several training courses at
PhilNits training centers in Manila, Cebu and Davao.
Pasawa said there are two types of exams provided by PhilNits -- the fundamental IT Engineers Exams or FE and the Software (SW) Exam. Both exams are given by the Japan IT Engineers Examination Center (Jitec) under the Information Technology
Promotions Agency, a section of Meti Japan.
The DTI-Nerbac head explained that the FE Exam is used to size up the skills and basic knowledge of an IT engineer on IT fundamentals.
"The examinee will be asked to develop a good program using basic techniques, then set up unit tests was well as system integration tests," Pasawa said.
Software exam, whose questions were also prepared by top Japanese IT engineers, is given once a year through the PhilNits training center.
"These exams for IT engineers and software designers are very tough exams that follow world standards in information technology," Pasawa said.
