THIS week is National Construction Week and dozens of events have been planned around the area in an attempt to stimulate youngsters' interest in construction as a career.

The region needs to attract 30,000 new recruits during the next five years to keep up with the "booming" building industry, according to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), which has organised the week.

One of the events is the Avoncroft Construction Challenge, taking place all week at the Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, in Stoke Heath, near Bromsgrove.

Around 500 pupils from schools all over the region will try their hand at professional construction skills.

Schools taking part include Evesham High School, North Bromsgrove High School, Dyson Perrin's CE High School in Malvern, and Worcester's Elgar Technical College.

Skills being tried by the pupils include computer-aided design, as well as more traditional skills such as bricklaying, plumbing and carpentry.

Local building companies are also involved, with Bromsgrove-based Weaver Plc helping out by providing marshals to take the pupils around and show them what to do.

"All of the events organised for National Construction Week are helping to raise the profile of construction and encourage young people to think about training for this highly-skilled industry," said Julian Humphreys, CITB's Midlands area manager.

"We want to attract good quality young people into the industry and a good place to start is by encouraging young people to get involved in construction related activities.

"The events taking place throughout our region in National Construction Week will certainly help."

Meanwhile, the CITB has published a report called Bridging the Gap, in conjunction with the region's development agency, Advantage West Midlands, to coincide with National Construction Week.

The report outlines the findings of research into the region's construction labour and training markets and makes recommendations for improvement.

Speaking at the report's launch on Monday, Advantage West Midlands' chief executive, John Edwards, said the construction industry was a "major sector" of the West Midlands' economy, contributing around £6.3bn to the region and growing at around 16.5 per cent.

National Construction Week runs until this Sunday, and is being marked by hundreds of events around Britain, all of them designed to help promote a positive image of the industry.