• Strengthens the employment partner
• Good from a community perspective – people in the community likes the investment made in their community
• Enables participants to be more productive
• Tailors the training specifically to the workplace – this is critical to the program.
• Brings new money to the community in the terms of $$$ Estimate this will create $1 million worth of salaries per year
• This is the real stuff of economic development
• Gives participants a real sense of self–esteem and ownership in the company. Keeps morale up
• There is employment at the end of the day.
• There is a strong linkage to the community
• Capacity Building for the community
• It is flexible. It focuses on the personal development. This is a big part of it for people who haven't had an attachment to the work force. It improves their self–esteem.
• The fact that there isn't a specific group of people that aren't left out – EI eligible and non EI eligible could both participate.
• This is a bit of a showcase – there is a success story. Should there be more good news type of stuff. The Burgeo Broadcasting System (local cable program) did a little piece on it.
• Having a CLN is a strength. Gives the advisory support to the BTG Co–ordinator.
• Having the employment partner on side.
• This conflict has not affected the participants.

Weaknesses:

• Smaller pool of applicants. If you can't have High School completion, this decreased their applicant pool by 50%.
• Communication of what the employers expect of the program (particularly in Health and safety)
• Confidence level that they are doing so many new things. We are continuously having to change and adapt. This is a challenge.
• Because we are all very busy, and BTG is only one item, sometimes scheduling is a challenge
• Should do the Grade 12. In smaller communities they do finish their Grade 12 but the big barrier is to go out of the community to go to school. This is a big barrier.
• The CLN should have been put together right away when the project was first put together. First time they met was in Clarenville.
• The budgeting should be done on an individual basis, versus the same as all of them.
• Education level was a barrier. Although some applicants did complete highschool they did not complete any post–secondary education and felt they were as much disadvantage in getting employment in their home town as were those with less than grade 12 education.