In a few years, Chelsie Baker’s educational path will be completed when the local woman’s dream of being a chartered accountant is realized — at home and with a company that she had identified as a target employer.
All this came about as a result of both Baker’s hard work and accountant Richard Wilson’s dream for the company he is a partner in, The Coast Group of Chartered Accountants.
While Wilson, like Baker, is a graduate of Chatelech Secondary School in Sechelt, his path to accountancy was much different.
“I didn’t have the option to article here. So for five years I went to school and articled in the Vancouver area. One of my long-term goals was to get our company to the point where we could have an articling student,” Wilson explained.
Baker is 24, an age that the Sunshine Coast’s demographics show is needed on the Coast, a need Wilson saw his business being able to help with. Serendipity brought the two together.
“Originally I thought I would be a radiologist,” Baker said. “But I realized that would be a mistake and decided to travel for six months instead. Then I worked for two years. When I went back to go to school, I decided to get a business degree. I started out living in North Van and discovered I didn’t like it at all. So I came back to the Coast and commuted daily for three years.
She decided after taking one accounting course where her future lay.
“It just made so much sense,” she recalled.
For many years Baker had worked part time as a server at Pebbles Restaurant in Sechelt, a job that required both extensive customer service skills and attention to detail — skills that, along with Baker’s tenacity in completing her business degree in the usual time in spite of commuting every day, impressed the hiring team at The Coast Group.
“We were looking for someone exactly like her in terms of education and training. When we asked her what her plans were she said, ‘I’d decided to see if I could work for The Coast Group.’ So we were looking for her and she was looking for us,” Wilson said.
Although Baker is the first person to be able to article on the Coast she’ll soon be joined by a current employee of The Coast Group who will be promoted internally.
“I think highly of the individuals, organizations and companies who have entrusted us to supply their accounting needs. They’ve allowed us to grow in size and sophistication to be able to offer this opportunity to Chelsie and others,” Wilson said.
In order to article a budding chartered accountant, The Coast Group had to be preapproved by the Chartered Professional Accountants of B.C. The organization has stringent rules in place to be sure the student has the necessary education and practical experience in a variety of accounting challenges. When Baker has her designation, she’ll be able to practise anywhere in B.C.
For her part Baker is pleased with the way things have turned out.
“The Sunshine Coast is very important to me. I only go to Vancouver for very special days now,” she laughed.
Not surprisingly The Coast Group is banking on Baker making her career with their firm.
“It’s good for us, good for Chelsie, good for our clients — and ultimately good for the Coast,” Wilson said.
As a local businessman, Wilson hopes more companies will find a way to provide well-paying, satisfying jobs for young people on the Coast.
“The jobs are maybe not as plentiful as other places, but it’s the community’s job to create the opportunities. Opportunities beget opportunities,” he said.
