Property and construction experts are urging firms to recruit more apprentices into the industry.

Consultants Ingleton Wood - which has a base in Colchester - said it had recently recruited Fred Makins, 20, as an apprentice building surveyor, but believes more young people should be drawn into the sector.

Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) data predicts steady growth for the industry between now and 2021, but 1,000 new recruits are needed each year.

MORE - Logistics company launches new digital system to capture warehouse movementsIngleton Wood director Christopher Mabbutt said: "We have trialled the government-run Chartered Surveyor Degree Apprenticeships elsewhere in the business with great success, so it was logical for us to go down this route.

"Young people are the future of any industry and being able to shape them through offering on-the-job training supported by academic course work means they very quickly become crucial to our team, and the industry, at a very early stage."

Fred is now studying part-time for a four-year building surveying degree apprenticeship course at Anglia Ruskin University.

"I'm currently rotating around different departments and have been to projects within both the healthcare and education sector so the work I'm doing is really varied, which I enjoy," he said.

He joins the practice, which now has over 200 employees, at a time when it has just increased its national league-table ranking to 48 in a list of the UK's top 150 consultants.