We’ve Just Been Named a Female Business Awards Finalist

7th August 2026

Written by Stephanie Austin, Owner & Lead Trainer, Prima Cura Training | Last reviewed: August 2026 | Next review: August 2027

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I woke up to an email with one word in it that mattered: finalist.

It set the whole day off on an absolute high.

Prima Cura Training, the Manchester-based first aid, health and safety and social care training provider I’ve run for the past 11 years, has been named a finalist in the Coach, Mentor or Trainer category of the 2026 Female Business Awards.

I’ve built this business largely on my own, so being named a finalist in a national award isn’t something I have a script for. It’s brilliant news, and also a strange thing to make a fuss about, because eleven years of turning up and doing the work properly has just felt like the job.

Eleven Years of Training Manchester Businesses, Largely on My Own

Prima Cura Training started in 2015 as one person, a stack of qualifications and a fair amount of nerve.

11 years on, that’s still mostly true. I run the business day-to-day, working across First Aid, Health and Safety, and Social Care training, with a small group of associate trainers working alongside me.

The courses are accredited, and the client list spans care providers, schools, construction firms, hospitality venues and corporate teams across Greater Manchester and beyond.

Before Prima Cura, I spent years working directly in health and social care, including time on the Skills for Care Personal Health Budgets Steering Committee. That’s probably where the habit of asking whether training will actually help someone in the room, not just tick a compliance box, started. It’s stuck with me ever since.

The Female Business Awards exist to recognise exactly that kind of story. Women who build something from nothing, who get on with the unglamorous work of running a small business, and who rarely get asked about it until someone finally notices. Being shortlisted in the Coach, Mentor or Trainer category feels a lot like being noticed for the bit of the job that never makes it into a course brochure.

Why the Coach, Mentor or Trainer Category Fits

Prima Cura isn’t a coaching business in the traditional sense. We deliver First Aid, Health and Safety and Social Care courses to people who need to be compliant and, more importantly, actually competent if something goes wrong. But training and mentoring sit closer together than they sound. Every course I deliver is really about handing someone the confidence to act, not just the paperwork to prove they can. That’s mentoring. It just happens to come with a first aid kit.

What Being a Finalist Actually Means

“Training that keeps people safe rarely gets a spotlight, so this feels like real recognition after eleven years of it. Training someone to save a life is one of the most important things you can teach, and I started Prima Cura wanting people to walk out able to use what they’d learned, not just tick a box. Being named a finalist means a huge amount, to me and to every business and individual who’s invested in first aid training.” Stephanie Austin, Owner & Lead Trainer, Prima Cura Training

Getting to the finalist stage in a national award isn’t just a nice line for the website. It means the judges looked at how Prima Cura runs, who it trains, and the impact that training has, and decided it stood up against businesses from right across the UK.

The Awards Gala, 15 October in Manchester

The winners will be announced at a gala evening on Thursday 15 October at the Victoria & Albert Marriott Hotel in Manchester. The Female Business Awards have been showcasing women in business from across the UK since 2022, run by Hazel Woodward and Janine Friston, and headline sponsored this year by EweMove Sales & Lettings and Eximius One. The awards’ own founders describe finalist status as a genuine trust-builder with existing and future clients, and for a business that’s grown almost entirely through word of mouth and repeat bookings, that trust is everything.

I’ll be there on the night, in a room full of other women who know exactly what it takes to build something of their own. Whatever happens after that, being named a finalist is a genuinely proud moment for Prima Cura, and for everyone who has trained with us along the way.

If your team is overdue a First Aid, Health and Safety or Social Care refresher, or you fancy a chat about entering awards yourself, get in touch. We’re always happy to talk it through.

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This post reflects personal experience and opinion, and is shared for general interest rather than as business advice.