Since the 1980s, the Philippines has put in place various measures for improving the status of women in recognition of women's participation in social and economic activities as a key factor in national development. As part of such efforts, the Philippines' government drew up a plan for the National Vocational Training and Development Center for Women as a training facility aimed at widening the vocational choices of women. In 1995, Japan received a request for grant aid in realizing this project.

As the central purpose of the Center is to raise women's status, it provides a number of features not included in conventional human resources development and vocational training projects. For example, courses are run not only in the areas traditionally targeted by women's vocational training-dressmaking and handicrafts, for example-but also in automobile maintenance, welding etc., developing new vocational areas which will contribute to empowerment of women. Considerable resources were allocated to its study and information facilities, which will enable the Center to function as a national center for surveys, research and public awareness of issues related to women.

The completed Center offers short-term vocational courses and various seminars, and 91 women have already completed half-year training courses (as of January 1999). When the planned dormitory facilities are completed in October 1999, an instructor training course will be launched on an entirely residential basis, which will complete and underpin the Center's whole vocational training program. Course graduates will move on to instruct other women around the country, fostering the kind of skilled women needed to underpin the socio-economy of the Philippines in the 21st century.