Since 1992, workforce intermediaries associated with the Texas IAF have put low-income parents into high-paying careers in health care, technology and trades.  The Economic Mobility Corporation released a “gold standard” randomized control test for nearly 14 years of San Antonio’s Project QUEST, the model labor market intermediaries in Austin, Dallas, Houston, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley. 

Study authors assert that “Project QUEST has demonstrated the largest, sustained earnings impacts ever found in a rigorous evaluation of a workforce development program. These findings provide conclusive evidence that investing in the skills of low-income workers not only can make a difference, it can move families out of poverty into the middle class.”  

This validates the State of Texas' match of local support of Project QUEST (and its sister intermediaries throughout Texas) through the Texas Innovative Adult Career Education (ACE) Grant Program, in Article III of the budget. 

Nine Year Gains: Project QUEST's Continuing Impact, Economic Mobility Corporation (2019)