Jessica Grosvenor scoops top business award

An entrepreneur from Wolverhampton has been named one of the best young business brains in the country.

Jessica Grosvenor beat off competition from across the UK in a gruelling day-long judging to win the coveted title of Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2010.

A panel of business bosses, including TV "dragon" Duncan Bannatyne, awarded the 25-year-old the title, which saw her given a £10,000 cash prize to invest in her business.

A former pupil at Walsall's Hydesville Tower School, Jessica only set up her new Freelance Training and Consultancy business in April but has already won contracts worth £1.4 million this year.

Originally from Willenhall but now living in Fordhouses, Jessica trained as a hairdresser after leaving school, before then working in a jewellers and then a bank.

"I'd got bored with each of those jobs and decided I wanted to retrain, so I'm now studying for a degree in the evenings on a course Wolverhampton College runs for Wolverhampton University," said Jessica.

"My own retraining gave me the idea for my businesses, helping people who'd been made redundant retrain to find a new job."

She won a string of contracts in her first six months and has now expanded to offer teenagers government-funded NVQs and technical certificate courses, in addition to basic skills like maths, English and ICT.

The business also provides teacher development qualifications and end-of-life-care training to nurses of hospices, private care homes and support services.

Jessica has built up a team of 20 qualified freelance assessors to help run the courses.

She said: "It's a huge honour to have been awarded the title of Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the year and brilliant to have my business successes recognised. The £10,000 cash injection will enable me to develop hairdressing and healthcare academies."