TEENAGE writer Helen Whitehouse from Pilley is in with a chance of a winning an apprenticeship as a trainee reporter on The Daily Mirror.
Helen, 18, the Chronicle's Birdwell correspondent, has made the shortlist of the national paper's writing competition called The Voice of a Generation. It is open to people aged 17 to 21 and the prize is the paid apprenticeship.
Senior journalists on the Daily and Sunday Mirror based at Canary Wharf, London, will give the apprentice the best training - and the winner will have a chance to set the news and political agenda.
The idea is to highlight first time voters in the countdown to the next general election and the apprenticeship prize starts on May 7 - a year before the country goes to the polls.
Helen, of Silkstone Close, had to write 100 words which were published in the Mirror and 500 words published online. One of her articles was about how the last budget had "badly overlooked" young people.
Helen said: "I'm so happy to be in with a chance because it's what I want to do and it's my dream to move to London."
She is currently on a gap year, working full-time at Topshop in Meadowhall, before she goes to do English literature at Sheffield University in September.
As well as reporting for the Chronicle, she also writes for The Guardian's student and Northerner blogs.
