Within the confines of Tony Galvez School of Cosmetology, beauty is a serious business and profession.

For coiffeur master Tony Galvez, the past years have been a continuous journey on his personal pursuit to raise the standards for Filipino beauty workers—hair stylists, nail technicians, among others—here in the Philippines through licensing, in order to be at par with counterparts worldwide and to uplift the dignity and practice of cosmetology in the country.

Galvez, who pioneered the Tony Galvez School of Cosmetology (TGSC) and who has been distributing imported beauty products through Perfect Solution Trading, Inc., says that the stricter standards of other progressive countries in the beauty trade motivated him to exert effort into raising the bar for local beauty workers through education and the idea of licensure.

“Cosmetology is a serious business and profession,” he says. According to him, countries such as the UK, USA, Canada or Australia require a beauty professional to go through a rigorous routine and education in order to obtain a license to become a registered beautician.

“If I tell them (foreigners) that I’m a hairstylist and I’m a cosmetologist, they will ask me if I have a license. You cannot practice beauty in these countries without getting a license or even passing the board examination tests,” he explains, adding that even some other blue collar job workers such as “janitors” have licenses in the countries he mentioned.

“It is because they (foreign countries) are protecting their consumers and at the same time, the practitioners (workers) receive recognition and prestige and their governments receive their respective taxes.”

Galvez, who also happens to be the public relations officer of the Technical-Vocational School Association of the Philippines-Quezon City (TEVSAPHIL-QC), seems to have projected a perfect work set-up but he notes that the Philippines is “not exposed to this kind of licensing” as the environment here in the country promotes a “fast track” kind of orientation and education to aspiring beauty workers. 

Cosmetology, in its essence based on international standards, is a two-year, full technical-vocational (tech-voc) course tackling the numerous rudiments and disciplines involved in the applications of hairstyling, nail care, skin care, among others.

“There are also applied subjects for it such as ethics, psychology, math and science,” Galvez adds.

In the Philippines, though, there is a dominant mindset for a quick cosmetology study, as Galvez mentions that organizations such as the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) focus more on increasing employment in a jiffy through shorter learning sessions.

This leads to the often undervalued notion Filipinos have for tech-voc courses, especially with the emphasis that finishing a four-year college degree is what matters more.

“It is ok that if you want a fast job, you take a [short] vocational course. But not all courses are to be considered as easy and fast track, like cosmetology [since you need years of education and experience before you become a professional and are allowed to give service to the consumers,]” Galvez says.

Although he clarifies that “there is nothing wrong with the government policy of providing short-term livelihood programs for those who are in the lower rung of the economic strata, for these courses address head-on the pressing concern of putting food on the table and money in the pockets. In this case, the immediate nature of the problem controls the appropriateness of the remedy. I do not have a quarrel on this issue. But a caveat, though—most of the time, on account of fast-tracking the absorption of knowledge and skills, short-term and quick-fix solutions have short-lived existence. Thereby, putting sustainability into serious question.”

He furthers in an official statement that “if the government will put a premium on competitiveness and the [uplifting] of professional integrity, there is no other way but to go tech-voc,” while also mentioning that getting a certification in a beauty course alone is not enough as one needs a thorough set of knowledge when it comes to cosmetology.

For Galvez, there is a difference between a certification and a license. A certification is a process of title control that “grants authority to an individual who has met predetermined qualifications to use specified title” and does not usually “prohibit individuals from engaging in the regulated occupation.”

Meanwhile, licensing controls an actual practice itself. It is described as “a process by which an agency of government grants permission to an individual to engage in a given occupation upon judging that the applicant has attained a minimal degree of competence required to ensure that the public’s health, safety, and welfare will be reasonably protected.”

In this regard, sometime in the 1980s, Galvez recalls that public figure Anna Dominique “Nikki” Coseteng proposed a bill before Congress to professionalize the cosmetology industry in the country. Since cosmetology is only a two-year course, it did not qualify for the Professional Regulation Commission’s (PRC) standards because the organization mainly deals with four-year courses. The bill was eventually junked also because of the protest of some hairdressers.

They, according to Galvez, reasoned that the idea of taking further studies and a board examination is impractical and that it would deprive underprivileged and undereducated persons of the opportunity of pursuing hairstyling.  

He says that “what they didn’t understand then is that education is really important to cosmetology. Say, if you are a doctor or a dentist, would you actually qualify as one if you only have experience to boot? Why would we consider the lack of proper education as a factor when we are trying to raise the standards of the beauty service industry to begin with, in order for us to be globally competitive? We are no longer competing [with] our co-Filipinos or co-practitioners, but we are competing internationally. The world will look at our knowledge as beauty practitioners based from the fact that if what we know is in synch to what their knowledge is.”

Last November 19, 2009,  Advocacy for Teacher Empowerment Through Action Cooperation and Harmony Towards Educational Reforms (A Teacher) party list representative Ulpiano P. Sarmiento III introduced to the House of Representatives House Bill No. 7005 known as “An Act Creating The Professional Occupational Licensing Authority Of The Philippines And Prescribing Its Powers, Structure And Functions, And For Other Purposes.”

Sarmiento III says in his explanatory note that a growing number of Filipinos engage in tech-voc occupations to earn a living. “These occupations, like cosmetologists, hair science experts, masons, carpenters, housekeepers, etc., require a certain degree of technical knowledge. However, public perception has not been kind to these practical occupations.” Many think that those in tech-voc occupations “are academically inept to handle real college work” and that “a vocational course as a curse for the academically deficient. However, such is not the case.”

Basically, the bill seeks to professionalize and license the practice of tech-voc jobs in the Philippines and “to guarantee a more effective government supervision and control” over tech-voc practices in the interest of the general public through formal education, training and practice with academics in technical and vocational schools.

“Unlike in other countries, technical and vocational practice is not recognized as a regular profession in the Philippines. We are left behind by other developing countries because they are able to produce highly competitive technical and vocational practitioners internationally,” says Sarmiento III, elucidating that the bill aims to establish a supervising body to ensure the quality of tech-voc graduates.

Galvez says that the bill is still pending in Congress.

For the meantime, Galvez just goes on with mentoring his students in the art and science of beauty in his school, which has been recognized by some organizations like the International Cosmetology Licensing Organization (ICLO).

Aside from teaching the basics of cosmetology, the TGSC also helps its students secure overseas jobs by assisting them through special classes such as board examination review sessions and helping and guiding them into accomplishing the documents needed for opportunities abroad.

The school also offers scholarships to those who are passionate to pursue a beauty career and are willing to undergo the two-year cosmetology course.