The e-Learning Foundation set up by entrepreneur Henry Beker last year is continuing to foster an ever-growing number of local e-learning foundations. Fifteen are now up and running and a further 50 are in the offing, covering some 2,000 schools. Teachers can partly thank Beker and his chief executive Valerie Thomson for convincing the Department for Education and Skills to do away with subsidies and launch the pound;100 million Laptops for Teachers scheme. “We felt subsidies gave the wrong message because most teachers need a laptop to be able to do their jobs. We made that case strongly to the DFES,” Beker says.