Fundacion CODESPA’s European Commission (EC) Funded-- Tarlac Training Center (TTC) Project, co-managed with the Hanns Seidel Foundation, has benefited many out of school youths in Region 3, primarily in the province of Tarlac. The Tarlac Training Center (TTC) of the Jose & Demetria Cojuangco Foundation, Inc. (JDCFI), offers a 6 months classroom and 6 months internship program to industrial companies in the Hacienda Luisita Industrial Park in Tarlac province and the Clark Economic Zone in the nearby province of Pampanga. After the internship, the students are automatically employed by industries located in technoparks, that are the training partners of TTC under the Dual Training System. 317 out of school boys and girls have been enrolled in Industrial Electricity, Metal Machining Technology, and Automotive Wiring Harness Technology, as of June 2006. The Center’s strategy is to instill multi-skilling in their programs, across these technical courses, to assure employability of students upon graduation. The Center’s graduates enjoyed an 85% employment rate to various industry locators. Graduates have an option to be self employed techno entrepreneurs.

For those not wishing to enroll in the one year DTS courses, the Center offers customized short technical courses catered to industry employees and out of school youth. Various short courses have been running on Bolts & Nuts Technology, Lathe Machine Operation, Milling and Surface Grinding Operation, Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) Programming, Industrial Automation, Digital Electronics, Basic Electronics, Shielded Metal Arc Welding, Industrial Motor Control and Maintenance . The technical curriculum of courses will be enhanced with TTC’s capacity building partnership with the Meralco Foundation, Inc (MFI)-- the country’s premiere technical school. Cumulative number of participants in these short courses has reached 300.

TTC is accredited by the Technical Education & Skills Development Authority (TESDA). It is a FESTO machine accredited training center. The Center was formally inaugurated on April 7, 2006 .