Philippine National IT Standards (PhilNITS) Certification Exam

PhilNITS Certification Exam Overview

The PhilNITS certification exam has played a

great role in the development of globally competitive
Filipino IT engineers. First officially administered in
2002, it has produced a total of 712 certified
individuals, has grown to be one of the largest scale
national IT examinations in the Philippines, is already
recognized as a Philippine national standard (PNS
2030:2003) for skills of IT engineers, and is officially
recognized for Civil Service eligibility.

Significance of the Certification

Objectives of the Certification System

• Improve individual technical competence (by 1. Providing the skill standards required
providing a goal to achieve). of various types of IT engineers
• Indicate levels of competence required for various 2. Serving as a guideline for developing
fields of IT engineers, and to act as guidelines in education curricula and implementing
education and training. training programs in schools and
• To establish objective criteria for evaluating skill corporations based on skills standards.
and competence of IT engineers. It also aims to raise 3. Evaluating knowledge and skills based
social status of qualified engineers. on the scope of questions.
4. Providing evaluation criteria for IT
engineers.
Scope of the Examination
The scope of the examination covers
knowledge and skills required by professional
IT engineers who develop and design IT
systems. The examination is designed to
evaluate integrated knowledge on basic
principles, skills and technology, yet remains
independent from any particular systems,
vendors, products or software.

Mutual Certification Across

Asia

Japan officially recognizes the

certificate for processing of an
engineer’s visa. And through the
Japan IT Engineers Examination
Center (JITEC), mutual recognition
of the examination amongst several
ASEAN countries brings about cross-
border utilization of IT human
resources and stimulates business
alliances across the region. (visit
www.jitec.ipa.go.jp for details)

* * * PhilNITS Flyer (May 2009), courtesy of PhilNITS Society, Davao chapter * * *

Philippine National IT Standards (PhilNITS) Certification Exam

Professional IT Engineer

The PhilNITS certification exams are used

to evaluate the knowledge and skills of an IT
engineer on the fundamentals of IT. It
requires the person to have the ability to
develop a good program by making full use
of techniques related to basic-level algorithm
and data structure. The FE Exams also
requires the person to be able to successfully
carry out jobs such as system designing,
• adapted from http://www.jitec.jp/2_01english/02examcategories.html
program development, unit tests, and system
• PhilNITS currently implements these two entry-level certifications : PhilNITS-FE (for
Fundamental IT Engineer), and PhilNITS-SW (for SW Design & Development Engineer) integration tests.

Importance of the PhilNITS Certification

• Proof of one’s competency in the field of IT

• Priority in availing of training scholarships (locally or in Japan) like
AOTS, CICC, JETRO, etc.
• Promotion and development of a culture
of (global) excellence in IT
• Preferential treatment in job applications
(especially to Japanese companies) both
here and abroad
• Standardized and objective guidelines for educational curriculum
• Gold medal award given to students during graduation
• Official document to facilitate application for a working visa to Japan
• Promotes the development of IT-related books and references
Example of a
A binary heap may be implemented using arrays
A B C Sample Questions as illustrated below :
Complete Binary Max Heap

Subsystems are A prototype of the Each phase of the

developed user interface is development cycle
independently, which
can bring about rapid
developed on the early
phases to clarify
flows from upstream o
downstream.
There are four types of
development. requirements. questions on Fundamental Index
0
Element
a[0]
Children
a[1] a[2]
What is the most appropriate combination for A, B, and C, based on the IT concepts, namely : 1 a[1] a[3] a[4]

• Identification of Terms
above descriptions of three different System Development Process Models? … … … …
n a[n] Children

• Definition of Terms
A B C a) a[n] a[n+1]
a) Waterfall Prototyping Spiral
As illustrated by the table above, which of the b) a[n+1] a[n+2]
b)
c)
Prototyping
Spiral
Spiral
Waterfall
Waterfall
Prototyping • Application of Knowledge following is the correct representation for the
children of element a[n] ?
c) a[2n] a[2n+1]

• Computations
d) Spiral Prototyping Waterfall d) a[2n+1] a[2n+2]

PhilNITS Society (Davao Chapter) References and Materials

The PhilNITS Society (Davao chapter), an elite group 1. Past PhilNITS Exams
(member count as of 06-01-2009 is 18) whose only membership • www.itpec.org (2007 to 2008)
requirement is passing any of the PhilNITS certification 2. PhilNITS Preparation Books
• available at PhilNITS office
exams, is very active in advocating PhilNITS in the Davao
3. IT Common Body of Knowledge *
region, and in showcasing Davao’s IT capability, through
its activities such as : 4. Practical Body of Knowledge *
5. Handbook on PhilNITS *
• PhilNITS seminars in schools * www.philnits.org/downloads.html
• PhilNITS review programs 6. Tips, Pointers, and other Useful
• Local IT Trainings Information on PhilNITS
• Collaboration with schools • http://abrightfit.blogspot.com/search?label
• Inviting sponsors & investors
Go for IT! =philnits

* * * PhilNITS Flyer (May 2009), courtesy of PhilNITS Society, Davao chapter * * *