KENT is home to the first construction skills academy in the south east.

The project, based at Ashford's Stanhope regeneration scheme, aims to address the looming skills gap facing the industry.

Some 3,000 extra jobs will be created in the county over the next few years as thousands of homes and other buildings are put up in the Thames Gateway and Ashford.

Denne Construction is heading up the skills academy in Ashford where it is involved in the five-year Stanhope regeneration scheme.

ConstructionSkills has given Denne £40,000 towards the cost of the academy to match a similar sum injected by the building firm.

The idea is to encourage more young people to become interested in a career in the construction industry by giving them hands-on experience at a real building site.

The academy is not a building but an on-site project. A temporary structure acts as a classroom for the young people who come on site.

Christina Montague, regional strategy adviser for ConstructionSkills, said the academy was taking advantage of the site as a "training environment".

"This will get to the parts of the industry that other training won’t reach because it will be here on site where and when they need it."

Kent would need an extra 3,000 people a year over the next few years to meet demand and to replace older workers about to retire.

The academy was designed to be led by employers to meet their needs over the coming years.

Nicholas Fowler, Denne’s business development manager, heads the academy project. He gave up banking to go into construction 20 years ago because it was an exciting career.

He said many young people wanted to enter the industry but there was a shortage of opportunities for them to learn.

"How can we translate that interest into the skills, the knowledges, the attitude which people need to get employment and at the moment there is not the progression route?"

Several young people attended the ceremony, including a number from Stanhope’s Beaver Green Community Primary School.

They spoke about their project on reinforced concrete and the strength of Toblerone chocolate. Kyran Wilford, nine, said he wanted to go into construction becase he was quite good at maths and would like to work with diggers.

Leoni Baker, 17, from Lydd, is a Denne apprentice. She said it was a great career for girls. "I’ve found it really interesting and different and I’m really enjoying it."