A new report has warned about the shortage of skilled tradesman - electricians, bricklayers and plumbers - which could reach crisis point over the next few years.

Industry figures predict that in the years up to 2007 in Wales alone, there will be a need for a further 2,800 employees in wood trades, 1,800 bricklayers, 1,800 electricians and 1,200 painters.

As more and more school leavers opt to go to university, learning a trade can be seen as second rate in career terms.

As a result, skilled workers can now name their price and choose their jobs.

So what can be done to make the prospects of learning a trade more attractive to school leavers?

This Have Your Say is now closed. The following comments reflect the balance of opinion we received.

I was a carpenter/joiner and worked all over south Wales. Twenty years ago I left 'the tools' and went into the IT field. I have been in this office now for the last 10 years, and I miss the outdoor life - negotiating the weekly bonus BEFORE I start work, the physical exercise, being able to wolf whistle (not allowed in the office), being made redundant at the end of a job etc. Most of all I miss the freedom. If you want to earn real money as a tradesman then you have to set up your own business. And if the customer does not pay take them to court.
Norman Miller, Pencoed, Wales

In school I was pushed into going to university to be a doctor a a bank manager - neither of which I wanted to do. Now, eight years later, I find myself working in a call centre having tried to get on a plumbing course only to be told there's a two year waiting list for employed people as all the places go to the unemployed first. So now I'm looking into social work. I'm going to have to go to college and work full-time to support myself so there's one less plumber in the world.
Sam, Cardiff

The industry needs nationalising. There should be abolition of self-employment (a moral and soul-destroying crime in itself), lump and casual labour, and exploitation of unskilled youth. There needs to be co-ordinated skill training, leading to decent, managed, direct and guaranteed permanent employment for craftspeople. This would provide British-wide quality controls to protect all customers and centralised access to suitable and well-equipped builders. Basic stuff really, socialism, just not fashionable yet.
Kevin, Tywyn

Ever since I came here, I've been appalled at the class consciousness of British people. Skilled manual work is looked down upon by most people and most intellugent people would feel pressured not to pursue such career options. In Europe, manual workers are treated with respect and not looked down upon and they don't have the short of strange shortages that exist in this country. If kids were encouraged to pursue such trades, you may even get more honest and professional tradespeople than is currently the case.
Rustam Roy, England (ex-India)

You can blame all of this on Mrs. Thatcher and the Conservatives! I left school in 1984, the only training available was YTS, and white collar work was encouraged.
Paul, Cardiff

I am an electronic engineer looking to retrain as an electrician but am finding it nearly impossible to find out how! I have been to the careers service and all they do is advise how to start from scratch rather than suggest any conversion options.
Julian Smith, Pembrokeshire

Where are all the Technical Colleges that supported apprentices through day release and night work? What has happened to the workshops in schools, all gone because the various governments wanted all to be white collar workers. When all the major industries have shutdown, steel and coal to name but two, there was no reason to keep technical education on. Get them back and teach youngsters a proper trade instead of forcing them on the dole.
Rob Henderson, Carmarthen Wales

My husband is 55, not as athletic as in his youth but is looking for a change of direction since telephone systems seem to be less income generating. I am sure that there are mature gentlemen/ladies who would be happy to retrain as skilled tradesmen - if the opportunities to train were there
Sue Sandham, Newport

As a female construction professional myself, working towards promoting the Construction Industry as a viable career option to school leavers, I am extremely disappointed to see the words 'Tradesman' and 'Tradesmen' in the article. One of the main difficulties in recruiting in the Construction Industry is peoples opinions of the industry. Challenging stereotypes is something that the CITB and other initiatives are trying to challenge, but by simply using these exclusive terms, and not an alternative such as 'operative', the BBC are going some way to adding to this challenge.
Emma, Newport, south Wales

When my youngest started at the comprehensive school 12 years ago, they were selling off all of the woodwork & metalwork benches as they were 'no longer required'. Ian Shakesheff, Newport

I am a 23 year old woman who has desperately been trying to get training to becoma an electrician.It seems that noone will employ me without experience/qualifications, but I can't gain experience without being employed. I have applied for apprenticeships, but have been told I am too old.I have been told the industry is short of female workers, so why can't I get a start??
Emma, Yorkshire

I left school at 15 and took an apprenticship. Five years as a toolmaker. I progressed to designer and manager. A degree would not have helped me. But I did well and retired at 51 to start a new business using my skills learnt at work. Uni is not a requirment to get on in life. We should not pay any more students to go there.
Neil, Benfleet, Essex

There should be more apprenticeship vacancies at a higher rate of pay, which could be offset with a tie-in option ie"stay or pay". Young people nowadays seem to want the cash here and now, not at the end of two or three years!
Martin, Scotland, U.K.

I left school at 16 in 1985 with 6 'O' Levels, if this had been today I would have gone straight to A Levels and University. Instead I got a job as an apprentice electrician on �36.00 a week. My employer encouraged me to go to college and paid for my time and course fees. After gaining electrical qualifications and working as an electrician for several years I have now just also completed an B Eng Hons Degree in Building Services Engineering, still with the same employer. I am an electrical design engineer on good money with good prospects. This is the type of career which schools, careers offices, the government and employers should be advertising more.
Ian Jackson, Cambridge, England

Crucial trades and blue collar employment absolutely necessary to keep our society operating just isn't as valued in the UK. This is reflected by the current university targets and debates. We may become awash with graduates ending up in jobs frankly anyone could do but who exactly will fix my car / get goods to the shops / fix my plumbing / build my extension or for that matter all these houses Mr Prescott is so keen to see??
Martin, Ely

I find it very difficult to find any tradesman that seem to know what they are doing - I've have in fact given up and have taught myself plumbing!
Gavin, UK

Give companies tax breaks who take on apprentices, training these people doesn't come cheap because it takes a while before to train them up before they can start to become competent while the company still has to pay them.
Marcus, Wales

Too many worthless degress; too many people being pushed into them.
Chris Jones, Aberdeen, Scotland

Young people shouldn't have to leave school to learn a trade. Non-academic students should be given the option at, say, 14 years of age to learn one or more trades at school. That would be far more beneficial to everyone than all of the current "difficult teenage years" schemes put together.
JohnM, LyneMeads,UK

Open more training colleges for skilled trades, and quickly. Many courses are already fully booked for several years to come. A lot of demand comes from redundant IT professionals changing careers, and with the current trend for outsourcing to India, this situation is bound to worsen.
Ian W, Hemel Hempstead, UK

My two boys are going to be learning trade skills to a basic level of competency outside school, at the same time that they are learning at school. Boys love tinkering with engines, woodwork tools, paint brushes and thinners - in fact, anything dangerous! Even if they end up as barristers, they will at least be able to put up shelves and replace a tap. Why do we expect schools to provide education in life skills? Their remit is what goes into the head, not the skill in the hands. There are loads of courses outside school for trades to be learnt, so parents don't have to worry if they haven't got the tools, time or skills to teach their kids.
Rick Hough, Knutsford, Cheshire

As it stands, I would not advise any young person to go into the world of trade, not until the attitude to tradesmen changes. Former electrician Ifor Symmonds, Llantwit Major

Provide more practical courses in schools as alternatives to the more academic courses. Provide encouragement to firms to take on apprentices. Provide fast track training associated with a job or job prospect for adults wishing to switch skills. Make offenders sentenced to community service work in these areas as lackeys, they may pick up some skills and actually go on to become a qualified professional.
David R, Plymouth UK

Labour probably want the emphasis to be on labourers having degrees because of their plan to rise student fees. Whichever the case, there is no correlation between the two and Labour should get their heads out of their...
Adam, London

These days people want more done for less money in half the time. Poorly trained/overworked workmen mean lots of defects at the end of jobs and frayed tempers. We not only need more respect for tradesmen but also better training, perhaps going back to formal apprenticeships with some sort of tie-in so that once trained staff don't disappear to higher paid jobs elsewhere.
Andy, UK

Simple solution - Offer University courses which are really apprenticeships. Then lots of young people go to university, and the government's happy, and we get lots of new tradesmen, so we're all happy.
Dave Brown, England

What skilled workers really need is the Labour government to stop implying that they are second rate careers. Robbie, UK

There needs to be more emphasis on the prestige of being a tradesman. I left school and wanted to go into computers like everyone else. I would now like to learn a trade but at 17 there isn't the opportunity to do so and maintain the earning power. I would be more than happy to retrain if the opportunity was there.
Andy, Lancashire

I just do not understand why this government equates success with having a degree. they're more raging upper middle-class snobs than the Tories are now.

My family were working class; I went down the academic route through university, my brother didn't. We now have equivalent jobs, both in terms of pay and responsibility, though in different fields. The only real difference is that he was earning from 16 and I was earning from 22. If we were somewhat younger, that difference would also include the fact that I would now have a massive debt, with the same income, and six years less salary to fall back on.

What skilled workers really need is the Labour government to stop implying that they are second rate careers.
Robbie, UK

When I was at school the only careers promoted were in non-manual. There was a total disregard for the skills of the workman. When my son was at school the choices presented were higher education or the dole queue. The schools and the government seem to be fixated on university education to the exclusion of everything else.

As John Harvey-Jones once put it, 'if the Managing director and the person who cleans the toilets fail to come in, it will be the absence of the toilet cleaner that is noticed first'. When your bank manager goes sick do you notice? When your car breaks down, or your central heating fails, then you really notice!
Barry P, Havant England

When my youngest started at the comprehensive school 12 years ago, they were selling off all of the woodwork & metalwork benches as they were 'no longer required'. The emphasis was now on design and light materials such as card and plastics. The current situation was predictable if pupils were not to be introduced to these skills, then they were not likely to develop the necessary interest.
Ian Shakesheff, Newport

Having been an electrician and spent time serving an apprenticeship and building up several years experience, I decided enough was enough. I changed careers because what jobs were available in Wales were low paid, unreliable and an attitude from business and government of hire and fire - a standing joke between tradesmen is on Fridays you get awarded DCMs (Dont Come Monday).

Essentially there are few quality employment positions for tradesmen. And if you go self-employed there are too many people who will not settle the bill - to one-man band workers it is a difference of success or failure. As it stands, I would not advise any young person to go into the world of trade, not until the attitude to tradesmen changes.
Ifor Symmonds, Llantwit Major, s Wales

The pervasive survival of class culture means that skilled people who can actually fix things are still looked down on. I personally value them greatly.
J Sims, Bath

How can they resolve this matter, if the apprenticeships are focused only at school leavers?
Chan, Cardiff

For a long time, people in university considered themselves superior to hard working apprentices. That's over now - we don't need theory, we need practice, and that means proper four-year apprenticeships, like the good old days when things worked properly.
Steve Jones, Cambridge UK

We can stop this insane attempt to get 50% of the population into university. Bring back apprenticeships. Both the current and last government has played with the system so much, destroyed the quality of the English degree and with it destroyed the willingness of people to go into a trade
Vish, UK

I work for an FE college in the Midlands, and our plumbing and hairdressing courses are oversubscribed three times. Young people are beginning to realise that a trade can be just as lucrative, and more rewarding, than the lottery that is graduate employment these days.
John, UK