COLLEGES across the North-East have joined together to fight for a larger slice of Government funding.

The colleges are calling for £120m extra funds to increase choice and opportunities for learners, to boost adult learning, modernise pay structures and buildings and fund education maintenance allowances.

MPs from across the North-East are backing the campaign, with seven of the region's elected representatives signing an Early Day Motion in support of local colleges.

The campaign is part of a national drive to secure "adequate" funding from this year's Comprehensive Spending Review - a £1.9bn slice of the £8.1bn 2005-2008 education spending allocated by Chancellor Gordon Brown in the Budget.

Alan Dixon, northern regional director of the Association of Colleges, said: "Colleges are integral to the local economy, as training provid-ers and employers in their own right, to Government targets for the number of 16-year-olds in education and those entering Higher Education, and to enhancing learning opportunities for adults.

"Colleges are centre stage to deliver relevant and attractive vocational learning to 16-19 year-olds. They are reshaping provision to remove barriers to learning for those in work.

"In the process, they will have to make massive investment in their staff and learning resources."

"Obviously they are expecting significant additional funding in the Comprehensive Spending Review."

MPs from the region backing the campaign include Alan Beith, Ronnie Campbell, David Clelland, Frank Cook, Jim Dobbin, Bill Etherington and Gerry Steinberg.