We've evaluated this program and we've found that, on average, over 90% of the students are actually hired on by the firm afterwards. In many cases, for these very small firms, it's the first time they've had an engineer or a scientist. Once they have one, they realize how useful they can be. We have a retention rate of over 90%. So although it is a youth placement program, in essence what we are doing is creating new jobs and employment for those people.
On June 4th, 2009. See this statement in context.