A MAN who, for over a year, has had no home or job to call his own, has landed a top position in the former Soviet Union state of Moldova with the help of your favourite local newspaper.

Skilled glass worker Carl Pickavance (45) has been living at the St Helens YMCA hostel for just over a year after returning to his home town from Johannesburg and regularly tuned into the Star's job vacancies page in the hope that he would be able to find something suitable.

His prayers were finally answered when he received word that he had been accepted for the post of quality assurance glass control superintendent at a new glass factory in Moldova.

Carl (pictured), who previously worked at Rockware Glass for 12 years before moving out to South Africa, told the Star: "I moved into the hostel when I came back to St Helens because I couldn't afford a house. I did move in with my brother for a while but four months ago he and his wife had a baby so I moved back into the YMCA to give them more room."

He added: "I was absolutely delighted to get the job because it's a fantastic opportunity and I'm really looking forward to going."

And he doesn't foresee there being a language problem as there will be a number of fellow British workers flying over, some of whom are even former colleagues of Carl from his Rockware days.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.