Mobility posted long-term RCT results for Project QUEST occupational training of low-income adults for well-paying healthcare jobs. Quick take: High-quality RCT finds 15-20% gain in annual earnings at 14 year mark - an extremely promising (albeit not quite definitive) result.

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Program and Study Design:

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• QUEST, located in San Antonio, "provides financial, academic, and personal supports to help adults with low incomes obtain postsecondary educational credentials needed to access well-paying jobs in strong sectors of the local economy." Its cost is ~$14,400 per participant.

  
  

• The RCT assessed QUEST's impact among a sample of 410 low-income adults pursuing health-care careers (88% female, 74% Hispanic, avg baseline earnings of $15,298). Based on careful review, this was a high-quality RCT (e.g., good baseline balance, negligible sample attrition).

Findings:

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• The study found that QUEST increased annual earnings by 15-20% (approximately $6,000 per year) during years 9-14 after program entry (see chart below). The cumulative earnings gain far exceeds the program's cost. These sustained gains represent meaningful improvement in people's life outcomes.

• We offer two cautions on these findings:

  • The effects were statistically significant or near significant in years 9-12 but not after - possibly because sample members' earnings are more dispersed (i.e. have greater "variance") over time, making it harder to detect an effect as significant.

  • Additionally, this was a modest-sized study conducted in a single site (San Antonio).

Comment:

• For the above reasons, replication of these highly-promising results in another RCT at a different site would be important to hopefully confirm the findings and establish that they generalize to other communities.