SHE might not look like your average truck driver but Maria Chambers-Skelton is perfectly at home behind the wheel of a lorry.

And while it is unlikely you will find Maria, aged 36, stopping at a roadside greasy spoon cafe, she is having no problems getting up to speed with the male-dominated world of wagons.

"It was not at all intimidating or scary getting behind the wheel, plus I had a women instructor," said Maria, an accountant from Bolton.

She is among a growing number of women taking lorry-driving courses at Red Rose Training, in Stoneclough.

Maria is not thinking about a career-change - she had to undergo the course so she could tow her horse-box - but the centre hopes more women will go on to be fully qualified goods vehicle drivers.

Red Rose has been chosen by freight industry charity Skills for Logistics to run Women Into Transport, a project to give 10 women drivers the chance to train at the centre for a Category C licence and industry-standard NVQs.

Courses are being run across England to help train 575 new women drivers in a bid to open the doors to what has traditionally been a male-oriented profession.

Managing director Karen Booth, who lives in Egerton, has given the centre a woman's touch since taking over the business when her husband, Graham, died of a heart attack aged 50 last year.

The former classroom assistant and mum-of-two said: "Graham had built up this business from nothing and I was determined to keep it in the family.

"It was so male-dominated that it was quite intimidating coming down here."

She was keen to enlist more women into the world of lorries, forklifts and coach driving. Her husband set the wheels in motion by employing the firm's first woman instructor 18 months ago.

Karen said changes in driving legislation had already led to more women enrolling on courses to allow them to tow caravans or horse boxes.

"Women can make a lot of money in this sector and can work around childcare duties. Companies are more sympathetic to family life and there is always the chance of working independently," she said.

"More women are coming forward and one of the cleaners here inquired about training as a forklift instructor which is brilliant."

But the men in her yard might still take some convincing.

Forklift instructor John Smith said: "Men pick up the mechanics quicker."

But Lisa Bradfield, Red Rose Training's first female instructor, disagreed.

"Women will listen and learn more so pick up more things," she said.