Paris is scrambling to train enough skilled craftsmen capable of rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame cathedral to its former glory.

French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to rebuild the 856-year-old cathedral in just five years and make it “even more beautiful than before” the April 15 fire that destroyed the roof and spire. But France faces a desperate shortage of skilled labor capable of such delicate work — needing at least 100 stonecutters, 100 masons, 150 carpenters and 200 roofers.

Now Les Compagnons du Devoir, a historic organization training manual workers, is taking on as many students as possible — using a stunning scale-model of the cathedral’s spire in the process.

“It would be an achievement to be able to say that we participated in the creation of Notre Dame,” said one of the students, Romain Legoube, an 18-year-old apprentice carpenter.

Legoube said he hopes one day to walk on the vaults of the site and rebuild the frame of the oak-beam roof, as previous builders of cathedrals did before him.

However, Jean-Claude Bellanger, the training center’s secretary-general, has warned there are no quick fixes — with qualifications usually taking years with apprentices expected to travel around France getting experience.

Other experts have also warned that the intricate work largely cannot be replicated by modern technology.

“It’s a niche market. There aren’t that many projects but there aren’t that many of us either,” Benoit Dulion, who heads a firm that restores timber roof frames, told AFP.

With Post wires