AN ASPIRING young journalist has swapped Rose Hill for Fleet Street after bagging a job in the news business thanks to his voluntary work with the Rose Hill News.

Michael Klimes, of Iffley Village, will start work with the Japanese Jiji Press news agency in London on Tuesday.

He is the first volunteer success story to come out of the new Big Lottery Fund-backed Rose Hill regeneration project.

Rose Hill News received part of a grant of £361,000 given to the estate to pay for a variety of regeneration projects over the next five years.

The 25-year-old’s portfolio of stories from his four-month placement with the news- letter charted life in Rose Hill and included interviews with many of the estate’s residents.

It has helped him win a position as an assistant correspondent at Jiji.

He will start as a researcher and junior writer and work his way up to pitching and writing his own stories for the newswire, which sells stories to English language Japanese news organisations.

Speaking of his experience with Rose Hill News he said: “It was good, I met good people and got to write quite a lot of interesting things.

“The placement kept me busy and out of my parents’ hair. It gave me the opportunity to write and do something journalistic.

“I was looking for some sort of journalistic opportunities in Oxford and I went on to the Do It website for volunteers.

“That’s how I heard about Rose Hill News and I thought ‘that’s perfect’.”

The former pupil at Cokethorpe School, near Witney, said his highlights in Rose Hill included reporting on community events and interviewing Rafael Borja about the Saturday dads’ club he runs in the estate.

Michael’s colleagues are delighted by his success.

Rose Hill volunteer co- ordinator Ali Hall said: “He has done a lot of work for us on the paper and he’s been volunteering at the community food events we run.

“He has really thrown himself into it even though the project has not been going that long.

“I think his success will inspire other volunteers now they are able to see someone has succeeded.

“He’s very inspiring.”

Rose Hill community wor-ker Fran Gardner said: “Des-pite the fact the Lottery project only started on December 1 last year, already we’re seeing success with our volunteers getting work following the support and training they are getting from the project.

“Michael is our first success story. He has been incredibly committed to the project.”