MANILA, Philippines—The demand for more information technology (IT) skilled workers from the Philippines continues to grow as the global economy recovers from the credit crunch.

With it the European IT Service Center Foundation (EITSC) continues in its build up of more IT training facilities with the opening of a fourth center at the University of the Philippines Diliman campus.

The EITSC Computer Laboratory at the UP Diliman campus is part of a multi-agency project entitled “Establishment of Market-Driven and Technology-based Courses and Further Training for the Information Technology Sector in the National Capital Region.”

Starting in 2004, this project is a partnership between the EITSC and the Hanns Seidel Foundation/Germany (HSF), with a funding of about 740,000 euros (P52 million).

The new facility is actually the third offsite location under the project. The fourth one is the EITSC Training Hub at the EITSC headquarters in Makati City.

The UP Diliman EITSC Computer Laboratory is a 52-square meter location with 25 computers, a projector, and a wall-mounted screen.

It is similar to the three other offsite facilities but the UP Diliman facility will have a new dualized training system (DTS) wherein the EITSC will partner with an industry organizations such as those in the business process outsourcing services.

The concept of the DTS is to enhance the employability of Filipino students, graduates and professionals in specific local industries.

The DTS will include a competency standard and a competency curriculum. For now, the curriculum includes 53 learning packages for the contact center service.

Some of the partners of the EITSC Computer Laboratory’s DTS are the University of Makati, Rizal Technological University, ATRIEV Computer School for the Blind, Rainmaker Asia, Accenture Philippines, and the UP System IT Foundation.

So far, the EITSC-HSF project has trained 773 professionals from 171 enterprises and 92 academic institutions.