MAKATI CITY, Philippines -- By offering its software for free to students, Microsoft is hoping to help address the need for more skilled professional developers in the country.

Called DreamSpark, this program gives students access to developer tools, such as Visual Studio and other platform, tools such as Windows Server and Windows Sequel Server database.

DreamSpark was first announced by Microsoft founder and former chairman Bill Gates himself last February. It was initially offered to more than 35 million college students, according to Microsoft.

Locally, Microsoft is working with the Junior Philippine Computer Society (JPCS) and targeting the latter's membership base of around 4,000 students nationwide.

Students will be given invitation codes directing them to a website where they can download the software and get a one-time activation key.

Microsoft is insisting these software tools are not trial versions and are exactly similar to those used by professional developers. Thus, there is no expiry date and students are prohibited from using these tools to design commercial software.

Still, when asked about the possibility of replicating downloaded software, Microsoft local officials admitted they can only rely on the one-time activation key, not necessarily monitor activations.

Also, eligibility to download and use would depend on checking with JPCS database if users are still duly enrolled.

"We wanted it simple as possible (for students). We will be offering more products but for now it will be primarily developer and gaming tools," said Tim Vergel de Dios, academic developer evangelist for Microsoft Philippines.

DreamSpark also offers XNA Game Studio, a developer platform for designing games on the Xbox, Microsoft's gaming console.