Jump Start Your Career with a Retail Scholarship
Toronto, March 5, 2007 – Students seeking a helpful start to a promising career in retail should look no further than Retail Council of Canada's annual Retail as a Career Scholarship Program.
"Today's students are under a lot of pressure, be it financial, academic or choosing their career path," says Diane J. Brisebois, President and CEO, Retail Council of Canada (RCC). "The retail industry created the Retail as a Career Scholarship Program to provide the financial assistance that many students need and to increase awareness of retail's diverse career opportunities in sales, marketing, human resources, technology, finance, loss prevention and more."
For 2007, RCC's Retail as a Career Scholarship Program will award twenty $1,000 scholarships to post-secondary students across Canada. The scholarships will assist students who are interested in pursuing an education in retail or a business-related post-secondary program, such as fashion merchandising/marketing, graphic design, advertising, communications, sociology and human resources management. Applicants are judged by an independent panel and are rated on their academic record, references and an application essay.
The 2007 scholarships will be presented to the 20 deserving winners at STORE 2007 — Canada's Retail Conference, on June 4 and 5 in Toronto. Scholarship winners will receive expenses-paid travel to STORE and will have the opportunity to network with industry executives with a full conference pass and an invitation to attend a special awards ceremony in their honour.
Each year, RCC's Retail as a Career Scholarship Program attracts a growing number of post-secondary students from across Canada, with more than 250 applications received in 2006. Retail Council of Canada and leading Canadian retailers developed this initiative to recognize retail's future stars by providing financial assistance to students pursuing a career in retail. The retail community has invested more than $50,000 in this initiative since the program's inception in 2001.
The deadline for scholarship applications is Friday, April 13, 2007. For more details, requirements and an application form, visit www.retaileducation.ca or call (888) 373-8245.
National Retail Facts:
- Retail is Canada's second-largest employer with approximately two million people employed in this sector.
- Retail is a major contributor to Canada's economy, recording $391 billion in sales in 2006.
- Retail is a career with opportunities in sales, marketing, human resources, technology, finance, loss prevention and more.
About RCC
Retail Council of Canada (www.retailcouncil.org) is the Voice of Retail. It is a not-for-profit association representing more than 40,000 stores of all retail formats, including independent merchants, regional and national mass and specialty chains, and online merchants.
For more information, contact:
Stephanie Petroff
Manager, National Public Affairs
Retail Council of Canada
Tel.: (416) 922-0553, ext. 228
E-mail: spetroff@retailcouncil.org.