The skills shortage in the construction industry is becoming a major problem. The country urgently needs thousands more electricians, plumbers and bricklayers to service major projects such as the Olympic games, the renovation of King's Cross railway station, and the Government's new homes building programme.

Closer to home, the redevelopment of the Westgate Centre in Oxford is a good example of a key project requiring a significant amount of labour and expertise to ensure it is completed in time and on budget.

But there are simply not enough people to do the job - projects such as the Oxford Castle development used significant quantities of foreign labour, particularly from Eastern Europe.

Recent reports suggest many of these workers are now returning home to help with the rapid development of their own economies, and the foreign plug in the skills gap has been pulled once more.

However, there is a pool of potential talent in this country which has been consistently overlooked.

It involves UK-based flexible, motivated workers willing to learn the whole range of trades and deliver them effectively. These people are women.

Women are no strangers to manual work. During the First and Second World Wars, they were called in to do a range of jobs from farming to building tanks and aircraft in factories such as the Cowley car plant.

But when men came home from the war, women were expected to return to their traditional roles as housewives and mothers.

Of course, most traditionally male jobs are now successfully carried out by women. Many work on the production line at Cowley, or drive buses around Oxfordshire, for example.

But one industry where women seem to be banging their heads against brick walls is construction.

Fewer women are now working at a trade level than at any time in the past 20 years - less than 0.5 per cent of the workforce.

Yet at the same time, Women and Manual Trades, which campaigns to recruit women into this industry, has 30,000 hits a week on its website.

It seems potential employers are unwilling to entertain the notion of women building walls, or installing plumbing, or electrics.

The simplistic argument is that they are not capable of lifting hod loads of bricks, or wielding heavy equipment. But in this highly-mechanised world, such problems are now viewed as insignificant by those involved in training women to do these jobs.

Now a film has been made highlighting what women have to offer the industry and the problems they are facing breaking into it.

Raising the Roof is the work of Anne Marie Sweeney, a director and film maker who lectures at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, which also runs Oxford Women's Training, featuring courses for women wanting to develop a career in construction.

The film not only focuses on the difficulties the women face but also the huge wave of interest shown at grass roots level from those still at school and looking for a job with decent prospects and good pay.

It shows male apprentices talking about how and why they have come into the trade and one of the most popular reasons is that their fathers, or other members of the family, have done the same thing, and they are following in their footsteps.

Ms Sweeney said: "There are even fewer women in this industry than in the 1980s and 1990s, because local authorities are no longer direct employers and are contracting out work to private firms.

"There has also been a reduction in the number of apprenticeships for men and women, which has been compounded by the fact the NVQ qualification now requires an individual to have site experience, but employers won't take women on because of sexism.

"This is the last bastion of men only' working."

Since January 2007, Oxford Women's Training has managed to find work placements for 80 women, but just four have been taken on as apprentices.

As a result, many tend to focus on general skills, such as painting and decorating, which will allow them to start their own businesses.

Single mother Kelly Appleby, 19, from North Leigh, said: "Everyone is enjoying the experience. I decided to do it because I did not want to do an office job and preferred working with my hands.

"I have been painting and decorating from a young age, so it made sense.

"I am going to advertise in local shops as an odd-job lady. I think people trust women more - there are so many rogues out there."

Amy Johnson, 25, from Headington, added: "Many people think women can't do jobs like this but we can prove them wrong."

Ms Johnson's mother, Jill Johnson, 54, has joined her daughter on the course, having taken time out from her job in administration at the Churchill Hospital.

She said: "This is something I have always wanted to do and the team has gelled very well."

And when they do set up in business, they find a ready demand for their services from other women who may be living on their own, or the elderly wanting routine maintenance, but afraid of being ripped off by cowboys'.

Another opportunity exists in the area of eco-construction, where new skills are having to be learned and women are able to get on the first rung of the ladder more easily with a new generation of more forward-thinking employers.

Ms Sweeney hopes that Raise the Roof will also open a few more doors for women, particularly bearing in mind the skills shortages in the industry.

She added: "It will be shown to decision and policy makers across the UK as well as further education colleges and hopefully it will mean some of the stumbling blocks are removed."

o Contacts: Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, call 01865 550550, www.ocvc.ac.uk Women and Manual Trades, www.wamt.org