I will take a moment to congratulate the graduates of Stepping Stones to Success. It's a huge accomplishment for some of these youth. And I'm sure, as you know, in speaking to these young students, in many cases before they've had an opportunity to engage with the employment strategy through an organization like Stepping Stones to Success, many of them feel their outlooks are pretty bleak. They don't have a lot of hope for a job or inclusion in society. And what I know from my previous work prior to politics is that exclusion is really expensive, because the further someone gets away from their ability to fully participate, the more expensive it gets for society, for governments to take care of people who have been left behind. And that's the whole premise behind renewing the youth employment strategy.
I'm really grateful to places like Stepping Stones to Success and other employers across the country. Young people and youth-serving organizations have been giving us feedback in the last little while to improve the youth employment strategy, to truly get at what vulnerable young people need to succeed in terms of getting those skills and getting those oftentimes first paid experiences in their lives. I believe it's an important investment that will pay off in dividends for our country long into the future.