Media Alert: Retail as a Career Scholarship Application Deadline is April 20, 2007

Toronto, April 12, 2007 – The scholarship application deadline for Retail Council of Canada's (RCC) annual Retail as a Career Scholarship Program is quickly approaching for those students seeking a helpful start to a promising career in retail.

What: Retail Council of Canada's Retail as a Career Scholarship Program

For 2007, the program will award twenty $1,000 scholarships to post-secondary students across Canada. The 2007 scholarships will be presented to the 20 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.

When: Application deadline is Friday, April 20, 2007
For more details, requirements and an application form, visit www.retaileducation.ca or call (888) 373-8245.

Who: The scholarships will assist students across Canada 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.

Why: 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.

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, (416) 922-0553, ext. 228; e-mail: spetroff@retailcouncil.org.