An industry report forecasts growth in the construction industry will provide thousands of new jobs in the South East during the next five years.

The Construction Industry Training Board report comes as the board begins a major campaign to attract more young people into the industry.

It predicts in the South East 66,650 new recruits will be needed during the next five years, amounting to 13,330 per year.

The UK construction industry will need to attract 370,000 new recruits at all levels, from graduates to skilled crafts people, during the next five years to keep up with demand - 74,000 every year. Of this figure, 64,000 are needed to replace existing manpower - mostly due to retirement - and an extra 10,000 will be needed to meet growth in demand owing to the large number of building projects planned in the UK.

Major building projects in the South East include the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in Kent, redevelopment of Basingstoke town centre.

The occupations with the biggest recruitment requirements during the next five years will be carpenters and joiners, 7,500; managers, 7,450; electricians, 6,150; clerical staff, 6,600; bricklayers, 5,650 and plumbers, 5,050. To help attract new talent the CITB is investing an extra £2.8million in 2001 on top of the £4million already being spent on recruitment and education.

Michael Maloney, from Southwick-based A&F Pilbeam, said: "The report highlights how vital it is the industry takes a more proactive role in the training of its workforce. We all need to work in partnership with the board to help bring about training programmes for new and existing employees."