Enterprising Oxford venture spotlight: SkyLimit

SkyLimit is designed to provide tools and resources for users to reach their personal and careers goals through short, daily practices on essential skills such as time management, strategic thinking, career planning, communication, and more. SkyLimit was created with the intention of making their soft skill training readily accessible, with the current pilot course free and open to everyone. Its bite-size audio lessons and coaching tools, all delivered on a single platform, mean that SkyLimit’s reach extends beyond Oxford, bringing education to learners across the globe.

The initiative also focuses on protecting mental health and wellbeing in a rapidly changing world. Its creators range from engineers and business leaders to researchers, but they have all experienced something of the pressure and challenges to personal wellbeing of academia. As a result, Dr. Viktoryia Shautsova, one of the founders and an ex Materials Science postdoc, is keen to grow not only SkyLimit's ability to train skills, but its focus on welfare. “Academia can be quite challenging,” she said, “and I hope that this project might actually help with that problem.” In addition to running its pilot course, the initiative has been in active dialogue with other leadership projects, career services, and student wellbeing and welfare services. Through collaboration, and through listening to and incorporating student feedback, she hopes that SkyLimit can be a fully operational and useful platform for students’ personal and professional development.

Supporting student ventures

Skylimit is supported by Enterprising Oxford, an initiative at the University which helps to foster and promote entrepreneurship among Oxford students, staff, and alumni. By working closely with and supporting start-up businesses with links to Oxford and beyond, the initiative aims to highlight the opportunities available to members of the University community. Enterprising Oxford provides a practical source of information, events and training, and testimonies from start-ups, spinouts, and SME’s.

If you think that you could benefit from the resources, workspaces, and networks offered by the service, or if you are interested in the idea of entrepreneurship, you can find out more on their website.

Have you started an enterprise or start-up? We’d love to hear from you. Contact Enterprising Oxford at https://eship.ox.ac.uk/contact/ to share your story.