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A training program developed by a Filipino is being used worldwide. It’s called JEDI, but it doesn’t have anything to do with training people to become the knights in Star Wars, but to become Java programming experts.

JEDI stands for Java Education Development Initiative, which is a collaborative project of Sun Microsystems Philippines, Sun USA and the University of the Philippines, is now being used extensively in Brazil as part of a nationwide Java training program.

John Paul Petines, JEDI Project Leader, said that they were quite surprised to know that their program was received well by a group of Brazilian Java development group called DFJUG (www.dfjug.org). It was officially introduced in Brazil in October 2006. Petines said that DFJUG now has about 9,600 members..

The JEDI modules are also being translated into French and several other countries such as Indonesia, India and Vietnam are also looking to adopt JEDI curriculums for their own Java training.

It was in 2005 when the JEDI project was started in the Philippines as a means to produce Java experts in the country while filling in the programming requirements among local companies. The curriculum is composed of three phases, with each phase having three modules. The modules were developed based on the requirements of the industry and the standards set by Sun Microsystems USA.

Petines said that it was Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy himself who introduced the JEDI program during the JavaOne conference in the US in June 2005. That was how the JEDI became known among international organizations of Java developers.

“There’s still a strong demand for Java programmers locally and abroad and all we need to do is to produce enough to fill the demand. Before, the Philippines was just among the ‘others’ that produced Java developers, now we’re in the top ten countries,” Petines said.

So far, there are at least 160 partner schools of JEDI, at least 28,000 students and 1,400 teachers according to Petines.