HISTORY:

Project QUEST is a community-based workforce development program created in 1992 through collaborative relationships involving Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS), the Metro Alliance, the San Antonio business community leadership, employers of high-skill workers, the City of San Antonio, the regional Private Industry Council, the governor, the Texas Employment Commission. The model created placed people at the center of a genuine, far-reaching economic development strategy, based on educating hard-working people for high-skill jobs. It grew out of a new social compact among employers, workers and the community at large. To help working families adjust to the rapid transition in the economy San Antonio’s COPS and Metro Alliance engineered the development of a new kind of labor market intermediary. Project QUEST recognizes the legitimate interests of employers for effective, capable and competent workers while addressing the needs of workers for jobs that provide sustainable wages, health benefits, a career path, meaningful work and stability in the framework of a dynamic economy.

Project QUEST offers comprehensive training opportunities to economically disadvantaged area adults interested in pursuing careers in  targeted industry sectors which include a variety of career paths in: healthcare; business services/ information technology; manufacturing, installation, repair and maintenance.  Barriers such as minimal education, insufficient job skills and an ineffective support system plague many San Antonio residents, contributing to a cycle of poverty that is passed from one generation to the next.  Project QUEST seeks to break this cycle by targeting these challenges and providing the educational and occupational skills training necessary to secure family-sustaining employment and to establish economic self-sustainability for themselves and their family.

The primary goals of Project QUEST are to develop a skilled and educated workforce, place participants in jobs paying family-level wages and, ultimately, to strengthen the local economy.  To accomplish these goals, Project QUEST enrolls qualified San Antonio residents into high-demand occupational training programs, provides participants with intense case management and support services, and offers job search and placement assistance upon completion of training. 
The mission of Project QUEST is to demonstrate the social and economic benefits achieved through investments in comprehensive skills training.  Specifically, Project QUEST defines the skills required to succeed in targeted, hard-to-fill occupations, then recruits, trains and develops adults so that they are qualified and ready for employment. 

As a 501(c)(3), Project QUEST is governed by a board of directors, with daily operational oversight by the Executive Director.  The board is made up of two parts.  Community leaders, charged with insuring that the best interest of the potential trainees is paramount, make up half of the board.  The second half consists of members of the local business community who focus on the needs of employers and the economic needs of the area.

In 2003, Project QUEST, Inc. received the Enterprise Foundation and J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation Award for Excellence in Workforce Development.  The award recognizes nonprofit job training and placement organizations across the country that are using best practices to effectively help individuals find and retain quality jobs.  Project QUEST, Inc. also received the Ford Foundation and John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University’s Innovations in American Government Award.  The Innovations in American Government Program identifies and promotes creative problem solving in the public sector and confers broad public recognition on innovative government programs nationwide.

Project QUEST utilizes job placement rates, average hourly wage at placement, and job retention statistics to validate its effectiveness as a workforce development program.  Since its inception in 1992, Project QUEST has assisted over 3,650 participants to gain access to occupational training leading to employment in jobs that offer family-level wages, benefits, and opportunities for advancement.  Approximately 91% of those participants remain employed a year later as we follow their progress.  The current average wage at placement is $16.14 per hour. 

The key to success for Project QUEST is its ability to extend program services beyond tuition and book payments.  Participants require a comprehensive training program that focuses not only on skills training, but also on the personal and family issues that affect training.  Issues such as childcare, transportation, and other personal concerns play a significant part in whether a participant completes training in a timely manner or, if at all.

Project QUEST is a nationally recognized model that has been used to create similar organizations. These sister organizations are: Project VIDA, Capital Idea, Job Path, and Project ARRIBA.