Young Entrepreneur who founded The Grown-Up School

Laura Abraham is a 26-year-old entrepreneur from Barry Island, who has just won the National Start Up Awards (Education and Training Startup) and is nominated for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards (Purpose Entrepreneur of the Year).

The Grown-Up School is an educational business offering 100+ free “grown-up lessons”. It is a completely free, open access, online educational resource to help you feel more prepared for grown- up life. Adulthood doesn’t come with a survival guide, so the Grown Up School provides one – teaching you how to look after your money, career, wellbeing, relationships, home, and more!

Raised by a single mum in Cardiff, she went straight into the world of work after her GCSEs and a BTEC in IT.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, 26-year-old founder Laura left her job in finance, (managing a £7.6 billion savings portfolio) to help make a difference addressing the life skills gap for young adults. To date she has taught thousands of young people in secondary schools and colleges across the highest areas of deprivation in South Wales, alongside tens of thousands of learners all over the world.

She was inspired to set up The Grown Up School after reading that 87% of British people don’t feel like they were adequately prepared for life as an adult, saying they weren’t taught the life skills they needed before leaving full-time education. (Metro News)

The Grown-Up School is a vibrant, unique, and customer-centric business with social impact at its core, providing essential support during the cost-of-living crisis and is committed to providing free resources via its website forever.

On the night of the Start Up Awards, she will be taking students from a nearby college to the awards with her, using it as a learning tool for the students. Paying for the table from her own pocket – she wanted to make the event as worthwhile as possible – they will design her outfit, create it, film it and manage the social media content about the event.