EDUCATION technology firm Autology World has signed a deal with Microsoft it hopes will lead it to “rapid growth”.

Daresbury-based Autology has developed a software system for schools that brings together content from the web with digital versions of textbooks from leading publishers.

Now Microsoft has been chosen as a Microsoft Learning Suite partner, meaning a “light” version of its software will be available on hundreds of thousands of PCs in schools across the UK. Other partners in the scheme include Oxford University Press and Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Autology’s chief executive Eric Hobson said the deal would showcase its technology to thousands of teachers.

He said: “Microsoft is in effect showcasing a light version of our product, with the web content we have digested.

“That will go to every Windows PC being sold in schools for the foreseeable future. This year that will probably be 500,000 PCs.

“It also means it will go to the Microsoft UK Partners in Learning Scheme, which involves 21,000 teachers.

“For us, it’s a good route to market, and a way of exposing the educational market to the power of our technology. Hopefully we will be able to upsell the full version.

“We are a small company at the moment – we have under 10 people. We anticipate that will take off and we will go through rapid growth.”

Autology’s software includes a search system that tailors search results to meet a pupil’s needs. A GCSE student and a primary school pupil would receive different results if they searched for the same phrase.

It searches through content from publishers including Heinemann and Letts and also offers access to more than 50,000 vetted websites.