A WARBOYS-based IT company is in line for an international award for software that links school pupils and community experts live during lessons. Representatives of not-for-profit E-ngage Development, whose headquarters are in the village s Church Road, w

A WARBOYS-based IT company is in line for an international award for software that links school pupils and community experts live during lessons.

Representatives of not-for-profit E-ngage Development, whose headquarters are in the village's Church Road, will travel to Sweden in May to find out whether they have won one of the six awards in the Stockholm Challenge 2008.

E-ngagelive, developed by the company set up five years ago to specialise in the development of online learning systems to support the education of children and the training of adults, is one of a small number of UK projects announced as finalists in the prestigious international award for innovative IT projects.

"It uses interactive live internet-based technology to support those areas of the curriculum that involve the community, such as internet safety training," managing director David Casey told The Hunts Post. "It helps them learn about keeping themselves safe while they are using the technology."

The company has created a year-round programme of lessons for schools in the East of England, many of which involve messages from the fire services, police forces and county councils.

"They put together a lesson that's loaded onto our system, and schools log on and work through the content, making use of video, animation and interactive resouces.

"The unique point is that, while the children from all the schools are working through the issues, there will be people from the relevant service on line for them to talk to, such as real firefighters," said Mr Casey, a former Cambridgeshire Police schools liaison officer.

"So, if they want to know why they should not approach a firework that hasn't gone off, they get direct access to the experts who can tell them the real story from specialist knowledge."

The £250,000-a-year company, which now has seven members, was developed using a cash prize Mr Casey picked up in Washington DC some years ago when he won the Cable & Wireless Childnet Award for online innovation in education.

Every child going through school in Australia uses E-ngage technology for internet safety education. "They think it's a game. They even call it The Game," he said.

"We're also getting bigger in North America.