[Excerpt]

Last week, the New York Times highlighted a workforce training program in San Antonio called Project QUEST that helps hundreds of people every year move out of poverty and into sustainable employment. A recent analysis of the program was particularly encouraging. Nine years after entering training, participants are still experiencing high rates of employment and earning over $5,000 more annually than a similar group that didn’t participate in the program. Such outcomes are rare in workforce development programs.

The Times article came out just as AEI’s Vocation, Career, and Work research team began discussions with Capital IDEA in Austin, Texas, an organization that uses a model similar to Project QUEST. Capital IDEA has been working with low-income families in Austin for more than 20 years to move workers from low-wage to middle-skill jobs. In 2018, program graduates earned an average starting wage of $22 per hour. A previous analysis of the program has found sustained wage gains at least four years after program completion.

[Photo Credit: RealClear Policy]

Note: Capital IDEA is a long-term workforce development program established by Austin Interfaith.  Project QUEST was established by COPS/Metro in San Antonio.

In Austin, a Public/Private Partnership for Workforce Success, RealClear Policy 

Since 1992, IAF labor market intermediaries have put low-income workers into high-paying careers in health care, technology and trades. The Economic Mobility Corporation recently released a 14-year “gold standard” randomized control test of San Antonio’s Project QUEST, the flagship labor market intermediary for the IAF.   

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.”  

Inspired by the success of Project Quest in San Antonio, IAF leaders have established an additional nine projects in the West and Southwest US: Capital IDEA in Austin; Project ARRIBA in El Paso; VIDA in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas; JobPath in Tucson; NOVA in Northeast Louisiana, Skills-Quest in Dallas; Capital IDEA-Houston; Project IOWA and Arizona Career Pathways.  In 2014, DuPage County United launched its own labor market intermediary, Career Connect Metro West.

Collectively, these institutions have trained and placed tens of thousands of adults in living wage jobs which pay, on average, $40,000 annually plus benefits and a career path.  This number is expected to grow as the West / Southwest IAF expands this strategy further. 

In photos at right, trainees learn to cradle a newborn and conduct PERRLA evaluations at Project QUEST in San Antonio.  [Photo Credit: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News]

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

San Antonio Program Moves Low-Skilled into Middle Class, Houston Chronicle [pdf]

Not All Programs Fade: New Report on Project QUEST RCT Shows Sizable Nine-Year Earnings Gains for Low-Income Workers, Straight Talk on Evidence [pdf]

Solid Evidence for Career Pathways Out of Poverty, CLASP [pdf] 

[Excerpts below]

Since 2014, Texas has paid nonprofits across the state to help nearly 800 poor, older students navigate their way through community college….

The programs face uncertain futures because they are funded using a budgeting tactic known as a special item. Those items are used to pay for specific programs at universities by sending the schools that host them money outside the normal higher education funding formulas…..

Next year, that kind of help could end, though not because lawmakers are unhappy with the program. If the Senate gets its way in ongoing state budget negotiations, the Legislature would overhaul the way it pays for higher education in Texas — and funding for the Texas Innovative Adult Career Education Grant Program could disappear.

“It has nothing to do with our program or the effectiveness of it,” said Elizabeth Valdez, lead organizer for The Metropolitan Organization in Houston, which is advocating for lawmakers to continue funding the grant….

[Photo Credit: Gabe Hernandez, Texas Tribune]

Commentary: Funds Help Adult Career Program Boost Workforce, Families, Austin American Statesman

State Should Continue Funding ACE Job Training, San Antonio Express-News [pdf]

Proposed Higher Education Funding Overhaul Could Come With Collateral Damage, Texas Tribune

Senate Resolution, Senate of the State of Texas

Texas Job Program Shows Unusually Strong, Lasting Gains, Study Finds, Austin American Statesman [pdf]

Study Affirms Project QUEST Achievements, San Antonio Express-News

Escalating Gains: Project QUEST’S Sectoral Strategy Pays Off, Economic Mobility

Texas Innovative Adult Career Education (ACE) Grant Program: The Wise Investment for Proven Economic Development, Texas IAF

Over 200 leaders from organizations of the Network of Texas IAF convened at the Texas state capital to call on state legislators to restore full funding for the Texas Innovative Adult Career Education Fund (ACE Fund).  The delegation met with 20 legislators and staff asking them to support the ACE fund at its full $5 million and oppose anti-immigrant legislation.  Leaders additionally asked for local control covering issues as wide ranging as affordable housing and bail reform.

Texas IAF leaders additionally invited as guests of the legislature, as a resolution was read in support of the ACE fund by five Texas House members.  Later that day the Senate also read a resolution in support of the ACE fund.

At a press conference organized by the Texas IAF, legislators from across the state emerged from the Capitol to speak in support of the ACE fund.  Capital IDEA graduates from Houston and Texas, in addition to graduates from other IAF Labor market intermediaries told stories of how the workforce initiatives changed their lives, moving them from $10.00/hr part time work to careers earning as much as $70,000 per year!  The average wage of a graduate from these programs is $20.66/hr.

At a statewide convening of the Network of Texas IAF Organizations, leaders developed an agenda of issues to tackle in the upcoming legislative session.  The top two issues will be immigration (stopping anti-immigrant legislation) and the ACE Fund (promoting full funding for investments in long-term workforce development).  Several organizations plan on additionally tackling local control as it impacts local rental housing, property tax and bail reforms.