Building companies in Sussex are being urged to give school leavers a chance as the industry faces a shortage of skilled people.

The construction industry is facing a crisis as fewer young people take up places on training courses and apprenticeships.

Traditional trades such as roofing, bricklaying and plastering are not attracting enough people to replace those retiring or leaving the industry.

Economic growth in the construction industry is forecast to provide thousands of job opportunities in the South-East over the next five years.

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) says 77,500 new recruits will be needed in the South-East over the next five years, more than 15,500 per year.

Across the UK, the construction industry will need to attract 370,000 new recruits at all levels, from graduates to skilled crafts people, over the next five years, 74,000 every year.

Of this figure 64,000 are needed to replace existing manpower, mostly due to retirement, and an extra 10,000 to meet growth in demand owing to the large number of building projects planned.

Occupations with the biggest recruitment needs over the next five years in the region will be carpenters and joiners, 8,500; managers, 9,000;

electricians, 7,500; clerical staff, 7,500;

bricklayers, 6,500 and plumbers, 6,000.

John Course, the CITBs area manager for Sussex, said: "The construction industry is a really good career choice for graduates and school leavers, offering long-term employment prospects and great career advancement opportunities.

"Our research confirms the trend for expansion will continue until 2007 and 60 per cent of employers in the South-East expect their workload to increase over the next six months. We are working with careers advisors, schools and colleges, to educate school leavers and graduates about the great training and career opportunities."

Other trades, including painting and decorating, are facing a shortage of trainees, and decorating firms predict they could be hiring workers from overseas because of a manpower crisis.

Research showed few school-leavers were interested in a manual trade.

They preferred mainly office-based jobs, computer programming, teaching, law or journalism.

Most said a career in decorating sounded boring or lacked prestige.