Interaction with the participants

• The people in the program don't have much farming experience. Most are starting completely from scratch. There seems to be more potential in the younger ones. The older ones seem to be good at some things as well.
• There are a couple you would hire right off the bat, a couple of more of them would take a while. They are all trying their best.
• Working wonderful – fantastic. He was part of the selection program. They went with 8 people and then added one. They are really eager to learn and work. They are not people we would have hired because they don't have the level of education they would want. Anybody that didn't hire these people are really missing out on good people.
• It would have put those people ahead in a competition for work.
• I wouldn't have hired them without the program.
• I think they got good training. That made us interested to hire them back. We are taking on three more workers and will be taking the Bridging the Gap clients if they want to come.
• Several people have backed out, but they feared the schooling. They had all been out of their schooling for 25–30 years and this was the most intimidating factor.
• He is afraid they won't have enough practical training time. They were expecting more like 30 weeks than 6. Good to have them trained on what they are really working on it.
• They are looking for long term work and I'm hoping to provide it.
• Can't have their Grade 12 should not be a rule. Should not be able to have any postsecondary.
• They are programmed to be "lazy" around a program. They didn't take it to be on the job training. They didn't bend over backwards to impress the employers. There was a little bit of that. They felt the students felt they were guaranteed the job and no longer had to work at it again. We would love to be able to hire them all on.
• Anything they'd do different? The mentality of the students… this is a possibility for a job and you have to really impress. That was the most disappointing thing. They are not oriented in the real world. They got catered to for everything.
• Excellent – they are all great.