Pros
On paper, the mission of getting unemployed back to work is wonderful and there is some well-intentioned staff here.
Cons
It begins at the top with a CEO who is driven by ego and pads his own position with government funding. Make no mistake, this organization is a make-work program that needs to post numbers for grant funding to justify its own existence. Whether the unemployed find solid, substantive jobs they can live on is a secondary consideration, and their signature program, Platform to Employment, is a prime example. Many highly qualified, highly educated long-term unemployed enrolled in "classes" to teach them how to find work. The majority of those in the program aren't out of work because they aren't qualified or don't know how to find work, they're facing age discrimination which this program can't solve. Some participants find work but rarely at a comparable salary and while those who teach the class are fond of jargon like "onboarding" and "cohort" their methods are dated. I saw people fall asleep in class, roll their eyes or simply drop out. People don't take the program because they want a certificate, they suffer through it because they want a good job.