Project QUEST (Quality Employment through Skills Training) was begun in 1992 to provide unemployed and working poor residents of San Antonio, Texas, with employment training and job placement services. The program provides tuition subsidies and ancillary support services to low-income San Antonio residents enrolled in two-year associate's degree and one-year certificate programs at local community colleges. Project QUEST underwrites occupation-specific degrees in fields that are in high demand in the San Antonio labor market and offer family-supporting wages. Project QUEST is based on a case management approach in which counselors/case managers work with participants to develop a package of "wrap-around" services to help them get through training and transition to work. Project QUEST's initiatives include a work force development academy, basic education training, and customized training and mobility programs. Project QUEST has developed a sophisticated management information system to track program-related and participant-related outcomes and information. In 1998-1999, Project QUEST spent an average of $8,094 per graduate and $6,847 per placement. In 1999, 72.4% of program graduates were placed in jobs at an average placement wage of $8.97/hour. Project QUEST has demonstrated that sectoral strategies are highly effective when used to inform regional approaches to work force development. (Contains 14 tables/figures.) (MN)