VEHICLE apprentice Martin Latham is celebrating a double training win.

Martin, aged l8, who lives in Leigh, works at the Bolton depot of local bus company First Manchester, previously Greater Manchester Buses North.

The company is a subsidiary of First Group plc, the largest bus operator in the UK.

First Group was formerly known as FirstBus and owns Great Eastern Railways and Bristol International Airport.

Martin won the 2nd Year Mechanical Apprentice of the Year title in the recent awards organised by Training 2000, an organisation which specialises in training for the bus industry.

He also defeated 400 other apprentices from the North-west to win the coveted 1998 Apprentice of the Year award. His prizes were worth more than £1.000, including a tool kit from Snap On Tools worth more than £600, gift vouchers and cash. As part of his electrical/mechanical apprenticeship at First Manchester's Bolton depot on Crook Street, Martin attended Accrington College and achieved an NVQ Level 2 accreditation in Maintaining Passenger Carrying Vehicles (Mechanical).

Mr Mike Mitchell, Managing Director of First Manchester, also presented Martin with additional gifts of £200 and an engraved tankard.

First Manchester, which employs 2,200 people, operates 196 routes and 120 school services from depots in Bolton, Wigan, Oldham, Bury and Manchester.

It currently has 840 vehicles and carries more than 82 million passengers a year.

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