Oh, I completely agree. The funding is a great support option. The only concern is placement. If you end up doing something you are not passionate about or want to do for 2+ years you may find yourself having some trouble transitioning from that type of work into something more applicable. 2-4 years sounds simple but 2 years as an entry-level scientist or engineer is the foundation on where your career will drive to.
So, it’s somewhat difficult for scholars to find out after they signed a contract that they really don’t want to do that type of work. The initial introduction to what you’ll be doing is a 2-day visit to your sponsoring facility. After that you have to make a decision with only experiencing a 2-day visit and not even working. You mainly find out what you are really doing once you start your first internship which is well past the point of no return. If you do default on your contract you owe every single penny back. I feel a good way to mitigate this would be to have options to work at different sponsoring facilities. In fact, that was a recommendation made last year by the IDA in their evaluation report of the program which is available online.
The program is great if you are 100% certain that you want to do exactly what the sponsoring facility that selects you does. If for some reason you are not certain or find out you don’t well, that’s going to be a long 2-4 years.