ENGINEERING companies from across the Tees Valley joined forces yesterday in a bid to win contracts upon which thousands of jobs will depend.

The Tees Valley Engineering Partnership (TVEP) is creating a strategy for the next three years to win a share of work in the defence, nuclear and sustainable energy sectors.

During the past six months, the TVEP has examined several scenarios.

In one, the TVEP established that if no collective planning or positive action was taken, the engineering sector would be in terminal decline by 2015, with most of its work and jobs lost to competitors.

Alternatively, with strong leadership, investment in skills and embracing specialist technology, the sector could be prosperous by 2015.

By March the TVEP, which incorporates the public sector and engineering companies, will have devised a three-year positive strategy to win work and keep the industry competitive.

Malcolm Potter, TVEP manager, said: "This strategy is to ensure - or try to ensure - that we have a sustainable engineering sector in ten years' time.

"There are huge opportunities for new work to come into this area and for new technology to be used here and what we need to do is ensure that companies are working together to win that work.

"Many thousands of jobs are created by the engineering sector and it is vital for the area that we make sure there is a future there."