This rings true in every highway of life. In the search for higher education, those with sterling perseverance will always find inspiration in what Vince Lombard, the legendary football great, once said: "Winning isn’t everything. It is the only thing."

For those who seriously aspire to find their place in the sun, for those without any room in their hearts for regrets, for those who learn from the failures and mistakes of the past but do not lose hope for what is to come, good things are bound to happen.

Such is the fundamental concept that has assembled together young women who take advantage of an educational program that sharpens skills needed to find gainful employment, not only here but beyond the national boundaries.

ICI Training Center, a school for alternative learning, inculcates in its students the proper values of life. Ms. Ma Luisa Madrigal Vasquez is ICI founder.

She calls her training center "a gift of service" for those who need and want to expand their horizon.

"Our goal here is not just to provide a source of livelihood, but make them use their inborn skills and values as a way of life," Madrigal-Vasquez said.

Having been born in the lap of luxury, Madrigal- Vasquez sees ICI Training Center as a way of giving back to her countrymen the many blessings she was born with.

The building that houses the Frank Provost (Paris) Beauty Salon, along Jupiter St., Bel-Air Village in Makati City is home to the ICI Training Center.

After many years of successful operation, Frank Provost as a beauty center has become the favorite beauty salon destination among members of the diplomatic corps and their families, as well as Metro Manila’s rich and famous.

The success of the beauty salon was a compelling force enough for Madrigal-Vasquez to put up the training center for young Filipino women. Hand-in-hand with friend Baby Cruz, they put their minds together to put up the blueprint of their ambitious project with constant consultation with the Frank Provost salon in Paris to bring some of their French artists to the Philippines.

The center’s curriculum and training strive to strike a balance of technical skills and proper value formation, not merely confined to traditional formal education but instrumental to becoming dignified professionals.

‘’The center’s main target is being able to provide livelihood opportunities to deserving but less fortunate Filipinos to allow them to carve a better life for their loved ones,’’ Cruz explains.

Desiring for a transfer of technology of the highest quality, the two aimed for Paris-based experts to share their professional skills with ICI Training Center’s deserving students. Professional beauty guru Laurent Hebert from Frank Provost Paris in the study of hair management, color, sculpture and design has been flown in to impart his expertise to the students.

Having spent his practicum in facial techniques from Saint Algue of both Paris and New York, Hebert excels in French hairstyling management and techniques from many years of learning from European masters. Vis-a-vis his stint at ICI Training Center, Hebert is also Frank Provost’s (Manila) main hair consultant.

"We want to craft and hone our students into educated, passionate professionals who embody the teachings of our Paris-based experts. Being a center for alternative learning and continuing education, ICI Training Center gives daily lectures on salon management, basic makeup skills and nail care, things that these young women need to excel in their field and perhaps become entrepreneurs someday,

"Having had many blessings, it is the least I can do for those who have less in life by helping them gaze at broader horizons and preparing them to face the world," Ms. Madrigal said.