A FAILED school could be turned into a training college for builders, bricklayers and electricians to help combat a shortage of skilled manual workers.

Brighton and Hove City Council is proposing to lease the East Brighton College of Media Arts (Comart) site in Whitehawk, Brighton, to City College so it can expand.

Student numbers at the further education college in Pelham Street, Brighton, have rocketed from 11,000 to more than 17,000 in four years and it expects to keep growing.

Under the council's proposal, to be discussed at a meeting next Wednesday, the college would be given about a third of the site rent-free for three years for performing arts, journalism and motor mechanics.

About 500 students would move to the site and 35 jobs would be created.

The council would then draw up a master plan for the long-term future of the site.

One option is for City College to move in permanently and build a dedicated construction skills teaching facility as part of a larger campus which would open in 2008.

The city faces a serious shortfall in manual workers, who are in high demand because of the number of large developments going on around the city.

Andrew Garrett, project manager of Constructing Futures, a Government-funded programme to help address skills shortages in the construction industry, said Brighton and Hove desperately needed more painters and decorators, building managers, bricklayers, electricians and carpenters.

He said: "A huge number of developments are planned for the city and we don't have a workforce currently able to deliver. The average age of a construction worker in Brighton and Hove is 47 and that gives us an idea of what we face in the future."

Comart, in Wilson Avenue, will close on August 31. It was run under a controversial Private Finance Initiative scheme with private sector partner Jarvis but the council bought out the contract and decided to close the school because of falling pupil numbers and poor exam results.