Manchester apprentice breaths fire with TV dragon

An employee of The Bank of New York Mellon's Manchester office spent a day in London shadowing a former Dragon's Den dragon last week, as part of a campaign that has been backed by Sir Alan Sugar.

Chorlton-born Martin Corrigan, 21 (left), joined The Bank of New York Mellon in 2005 and was selected by the Financial Services Skills Council to spend a day in London with entrepreneur Richard Farleigh (right).

He attended meetings with Richard and Levi Roots (center) of Reggae Reggae Sauce – a company he backed during his time in the den – and explained how his qualification had helped him in his role with the global financial services company.

Martin was the first person in the UK to complete the Advanced Apprenticeship in Retail Financial Services (Investment Administration) after the qualification was developed by The Bank of New York Mellon's Manchester team in partnership with the Financial Services Skills Council.

Since then, he has been promoted within the organisation and now oversees a team of nine in the company's fixed income and securities division in its Manchester office.

Apprenticeships are programmes of learning leading to the acquisition and application of the skills, knowledge and understanding required by employers. They include a competence qualification such as an NVQ which enable learners to be assessed and develop valuable vocational skills in the workplace. They've been backed by Sir Alan Sugar, who appears in the current advertising campaign for the programme.

Martin said: "The day was a fantastic opportunity for me to attend meetings with Richard and Levi and help analyse the financial reports of a company Richard is looking to invest in, which gave me a real insight into how entrepreneurs work.

"Richard and Levi were both keen to learn more about apprenticeships and it was great to have the chance to talk to them about how I'd benefited from completing a qualification whilst working for The Bank of New York Mellon.

"The time I spent with them has definitely inspired me and made me determined to keep working hard to progress in my own career."