Kristen Davies

Accounting Technician

Work placements add to employability of NorQuest graduates

For any job seeker, or employer, one of the most valuable sections of the resume is the place reserved for experience. For the recent college graduate, the double edge of that sword is related experience is hard to find when most of your recent life was spent in school.

Not at NorQuest College where practical experience in the field is built into the development of many courses, including the one-year Accounting Technician certificate program.

“I felt confident that I would be able to find a job,” says Kristen Davies, a 2016 graduate of the program who is now working at Peggy Yelland & Associates Inc. in Victoria, British Columbia. “The practicum and volunteer experience the program offered really helped me.”

Students finish the intensive in-class programming in just eight months, making the transition from student to workforce-ready graduate a quick succession. A month-long practicum at a professional workplace in the ninth month of the program puts NorQuest graduates in an in-demand situation.

“I am really enjoying my job,” says the 25-year-old. “And I really feel the trust of my employer. I am getting to try different things from bookkeeping to taking care of annual clients, and they have even entrusted me with some bigger tasks.”

Coming to NorQuest was definitely a choice Davies doesn’t regret.

“I would tell (prospective students) that the courses are very practical and the teachers are very supportive. They help you understand the profession, which makes you feel good and not alone.”

The courses are very practical and the teachers are very supportive. They help you understand the profession, which makes you feel good and not alone. I felt confident that I would be able to find a job.