Women are being urged to brush up on their skills - to help plug a gap in the number of recruits taking up painting and decorating.
West Midlands based J & S Seddon (Painting) believes there is a huge well of untapped ability among potential female employees.
One of the company's newest recruits, 18-year-old Vicky Mayer of West Bromwich, is making her mark in Birmingham.
The teenager, who is earning while learning through a day release course at Walsall College of Art and Technology, is the only girl in her class of 16 painting and decorating students.
Vicky said: "I think some of the tenants of homes I've been decorating in the Birmingham area are a bit surprised when a girl turns up and I've had to get used to being the only girl on my course but I can cope with all that."
A trade survey from the Painting and Decorating Association showed that there are 19 men to every woman in the industry.
The PDA - the UK's largest trade body for the painting industry - predicts that about 2,000 new apprentices will be needed to plug a skills gap over the next few years and hopes that more girls will be inspired by programmes such as BBC's Changing Rooms to try their hand at a practical skill.
Alan Paddock, site fore-man at Waterloo Housing Association's Orchard House development in Erdington, where Vicky has been re-decorating flats, said: "As far as we are concerned Vicky's treated no differently to the lads.''
