Aja Auton Recognised with Influential Woman in Business 2026 Award for Personal Tuition

EM Personal Tuition Ltd Director Aja Auton is recognised for her leadership, resilience and commitment to creating personalised learning opportunities that help students build confidence and achieve their potential.

Aja Auton, Director of EM Personal Tuition Ltd, has been recognised with the Influential Woman in Business 2026 Award for Personal Tuition, celebrating her contribution to education and her commitment to providing flexible, personalised support for learners of all ages and abilities.

Based in Hartlepool, EM Personal Tuition has supported students since 2010, helping learners strengthen academic skills, build confidence and make meaningful progress. Under Aja’s leadership, the organisation has continued to grow beyond traditional tuition, developing its work in home education, small-group learning, alternative provision and support for students with additional needs.

Aja’s journey into business ownership followed 15 years working in education. Although she remained passionate about supporting children and young people, she reached a stage where she felt ready for a new challenge and a different way of making an impact.

In October 2021, she began supporting EM Personal Tuition with administration alongside her existing role. That experience gave her an inside view of the organisation and helped her recognise the potential it had to grow while retaining the personal approach that had made it successful.

When the founder later announced plans to retire, Aja, close to taking the business forward herself, becoming sole proprietor in December 2022. The decision marked a significant change after many years in the security of school employment, but it also brought together her professional experience, ambition and belief in the future of the company.

Her approach has been strongly shaped by the belief that education should never be one-size-fits-all. Throughout her career, Aja had seen capable young people struggle in traditional settings because the environment, pace or teaching style did not match their individual needs.

At EM Personal Tuition, that understanding has translated into a flexible model centred on individual attention, carefully matched tutors and supportive learning environments where students are encouraged to progress at a pace that works for them.

Aja has also remained focused on ensuring that growth never comes at the expense of quality. As the business has expanded, she has continued to review systems, strengthen services, invest in the team and look for new ways to meet the needs of families, schools and local authorities.

She credits much of the organisation’s success to the people around her, recognising that a team with different strengths, experiences and personalities allows the business to provide a broader and more effective service.

Integrity has also remained central to her leadership. Whether a student comes to EM Personal Tuition through a family, school or local authority, Aja understands the responsibility involved in being trusted with their education and development.

Her own learning has continued alongside the growth of the company. Business ownership has required her to develop knowledge across safeguarding, compliance, finance, recruitment, SEND, policy, marketing and business development, reinforcing her belief that leadership is as much about being willing to learn as it is about having answers.

One of the greatest tests of her resilience came in late 2023, less than a year after she had taken ownership of the business.

Aja was informed that the premises EM Personal Tuition was leasing would be redeveloped and the business would need to leave. With few suitable alternatives available locally, the situation quickly became one of the most uncertain periods in the company’s history.

Rather than step away, she chose to make a much larger commitment.

Aja found a building that offered better accessibility, a stronger location and significantly more room for growth. Taking it on required securing a mortgage and purchasing the premises at a point when she was still relatively new to business ownership.

The building then required extensive refurbishment, much of which was completed while the business continued operating. On 1 June 2024, the new premises officially opened.

“Resilience isn’t always feeling strong or confident. Sometimes resilience is being frightened, exhausted and unsure of yourself, and still deciding to keep going.”

What initially appeared to be one of the greatest threats to the future of EM Personal Tuition ultimately became one of its most important turning points. The new premises have since provided the organisation with a permanent home, improved accessibility and the space required to continue developing its services.

For Aja, one of the greatest rewards is seeing that space being used every day by students, tutors and families.

While academic progress remains important, she believes that some of the most meaningful outcomes cannot always be measured by grades alone. A student re-engaging with education, finding the confidence to attempt something new or finally feeling understood can have an equally powerful impact.

That focus on confidence, wellbeing and individual progress continues to shape the organisation’s work and its wider development.

EM Personal Tuition has also received external recognition for its work, including being named Number 1 Tutor of the Year – Hartlepool, alongside other awards recognising the quality of its tuition services.

Receiving the Influential Woman in Business 2026 Award has given Aja an opportunity to reflect on the scale of the journey so far.

In only a few years, she has moved from working within a school environment to taking ownership of a business, expanding its services, navigating the loss of its original premises, purchasing and refurbishing a new centre, strengthening the team and developing relationships with families, schools and local authorities.

Rather than seeing the award as an endpoint, Aja views it as encouragement to continue moving forward.

Her next focus includes further developing EM Personal Tuition’s work with schools and local authorities, particularly in relation to alternative provision, SEND and supporting young people who find traditional education difficult to access.

She also plans to continue investing in the team, strengthening programmes and identifying new ways to support students through flexible and personalised education.

Aja’s ambition is not simply to make the organisation larger, but to make it stronger, more established and capable of creating an even greater impact.

Her advice to other women considering a similar path is rooted in the same mindset that has shaped her own journey: do not wait for complete certainty before taking the first step.

“Don’t wait until you feel completely ready, because you probably never will.”

For Aja, leadership has become a process of learning, adapting, taking calculated risks and trusting that difficult moments can create new opportunities.

With EM Personal Tuition continuing to grow and evolve, she remains focused on what the organisation can become next.

Contact

Phone: 01429 400593

Email: aja@empersonaltuition.com

Website: empersonaltuition.com