Ticket to ride

For Chloe Hastie, currently training for her ICAS exams, a CA qualification will be the passport she needs to see the world. She tells Cherry Casey why the ICAS Foundation has been an essential part of her journey so far – and why she’s already paying it back

“Sorry I look a bit burnt, I’m just back from holiday,” laughs Chloe Hastie as she chats from her childhood bedroom in Dundee. She had taken a short break from her role as Audit Corporate Assistant to suss out Geneva, she says, “as I’d visited a few years ago and thought, ‘Hmm, I could live here,’ so wanted to take another look”.

Hastie had always wanted to see the world, she explains, and was aware the CA qualification could be her passport to do just that. “The more I’m learning, the more I’m seeing that is absolutely true,” she says. “So my plan is to get the CA under my belt and head off to wherever it may be, for however long it may be.”

Hastie says she had a great upbringing “in a really close-knit, supportive family”. And while she feels her mum was conscious that she perhaps had less than her peers financially, “that we lived in a two-bed flat and my friends lived in big houses didn’t really make any odds and ends to me,” she says. “But still I always knew I wanted to see what was out there in the world.”

When the option of taking accountancy was introduced at Hastie’s school, it piqued her interest, largely because it was something different. As it turned out, she liked it more than any other subject, leading to her careers adviser – who had herself studied accountancy at university – introducing her to the ICAS Foundation: “She said I should give it a shot, so I did and was successful.”

Via the charity, Hastie received four years’ financial support in the form of bursaries, plus a mentor, to assist her through her university course, studying accountancy at Edinburgh Napier University.

“I moved to Edinburgh by myself at 17 and while I had always been fairly shy, I suddenly had no choice but to put myself out there.” Fortunately, however, Hastie didn’t need to navigate this new world completely solo, having been paired with Danielle Devoy CA as a mentor. “I’ve said to Amy [Drysdale, Head of Volunteering and Programmes at the ICAS Foundation] that she’s really good at matching mentors with mentees, as me and Danielle are still good friends now, even though I left university two years ago.”

Hastie attended networking events alongside Devoy, which helped her build up the confidence to go by herself “because I now know things like how to approach people”, she says. Her mentor also proofread her applications for internships and cover letters. “No one in my family has experience in the industry,” says Hastie, “so I would have been totally at a loss. Having someone who knew what employers would be looking for was so helpful.”

Paying for rent in Edinburgh was not easy, says Hastie, and she had a couple of part-time jobs to help make ends meet: “Having that financial support from the foundation was so helpful, because not only did it allow me to work less hours so I could study, but it also allowed me to buy textbooks, because coming from high school where everything is supplied, I never really knew the price of them.” (A forbidding £60 each, she says.)

Panic button

While both personal and practical assistance were invaluable, says Hastie, her journey through higher education wasn’t always plain sailing: “I went through a bit of a rough patch during my third year of uni where I was just questioning everything, had total imposter syndrome, and things weren’t going so well, including my academic performance.”

Drysdale called her, says Hastie: “And I’ll never forget sitting in my old flat having an internal panic, and Amy sitting on this call with me for upwards of an hour just really setting me straight and helping me figure out a game plan.” Subsequently, Hastie changed her course to accountancy and law, saw out her five-year degree and graduated in 2023, joining Forvis Mazars as a CA student in September of that year.

“I’ll never forget sitting in my old flat having an internal panic, and Amy sitting on this call with me for upwards of an hour, helping me figure out a game plan”

Part of one of the first cohorts to benefit from ICAS’ new syllabus, Hastie believes its in-built flexibility makes perfect sense. “Having the choice of doing the exams when either the students or employers want has been a long time coming,” she says. “In auditing, specifically, we’ve got a couple of busy seasons in the year where it’s all hands on deck, so we’ll do the exams in the quieter seasons.”

Everything being digitalised also has clear benefits, she says (“When Danielle talked about carrying her work around in a suitcase I thought she was joking”), while modules on AI are a must for her generation. “It’s important for students to be aware of the implications of AI and how we can use it in our profession to be more efficient,” she says, while at the same time remaining confident “that the whole profession isn’t going to be going digital, because there’s nothing better than human skill”.

Pivot point

Arguably it was exactly that human factor, in the form of her mentoring and support, that was so pivotal in getting Hastie to this point. “I wouldn’t be here without them,” she says. Which is why she has now herself stepped forward as an ICAS Foundation Alumni Ambassador, spreading the word about the help that is available and why CAs should get involved.

“As soon as they asked me to be a part of it I jumped at the chance because I just really wanted to give back,” she says. Her role today involves “talking to as many people as possible about the foundation and all the work it does”, with the aim of simply raising awareness as well as encouraging people to be mentors.

“Even in my company now, a lot of people said they wouldn’t know about the ICAS Foundation if not for me. But there are so many enthusiastic and lovely CAs I have met through networking in Scotland, so there’s so much potential for people to be mentors. I think it’s really important to encourage a younger cohort, in particular, as everything gets a bit more modernised.”

Things are moving in the right direction in terms of social mobility in accountancy, says Hastie, but there’s still a huge gap to be closed. “So if I can impact just one person and get them thinking about the ICAS Foundation,” she says, “then I’ve done my job.”

“Chloe’s experience shows just how important our Nurturing Talent programme is. Both financial and practical support play a critical role in supporting our students as they navigate the challenges on their journey to becoming a CA. Chloe’s passion for giving back, and sharing the life-changing impact the ICAS Foundation can have for those who follow in her footsteps, is why she makes such a great Alumni Ambassador.

“We are a charity, and all of our work is funded through donations from generous CAs and our partners. Our amazing volunteer mentors are the heartbeat of our operation, without whom we could not offer our support to students like Chloe. We’re excited to be offering a record number of places on our programme this summer, and as we grow, we’re asking for CAs to consider sharing our message of social mobility, supporting our work through partnerships and donation, and volunteering to mentor students.”

Sanjay Singh, Director, ICAS Foundation

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