Shift their career trajectories upwards: Students, researchers and alumni

Attended the 5-day course as an undergraduate, University of Oxford. She now works at Google.

“Brightwings provides an incredible space for personal growth and teamwork… I find the holistic approach to the course has equipped me with highly transferable skills - including presentation and analytical skills, teamwork as well as creativity - that would be applied across many disciplines.”

Attended the 5-day course as a PhD student, University of Oxford.

“My week with Brightwings Education was by far the most useful training course of my PhD. It is so different from other courses because it actually works! I think this can be attributed to a number of factors, for example the course is very well structured with a mixture of engaging presentations, interactive sessions to practice the skills you have learned and individual time for reflection. The course is also led with a great deal of enthusiasm and the small numbers mean you receive a lot of attention with frequent opportunities for development. The intimate environment also cultivates a supportive atmosphere where you build strong friendships and feel comfortable developing your weaknesses.

Further to this, the Brightwings Education course covers a broad range of unique topics, such as: identifying your values, developing your USP & personal brand, enhancing your productivity and developing skills in project management, leadership and communication. What is important is that the length of the course provides scope for each of these topics to be covered in great depth, whereby each skill is broken down into easy-to-understand concepts. Overall this means that you leave Brightwings feeling thoroughly enriched and with a better understanding of yourself and how to work effectively and efficiently in a professional environment. “

Professor of Physical Oceanography, University of Oxford. Attended the Storytelling and Advanced Presentation skills course

“Camille's [the trainer] energy and enthusiasm made it a fun morning, as well as providing lots to reflect on - I am informed, inspired and motivated to try new things to improve the impact I have when I give future presentations!”

Attended the 5-day course as an undergraduate, University of Oxford. She now works at BCG.

“For me, the week felt more like a journey than a course. The integrated approach provided a holistic mindset towards success and personal development. The broad and interesting curriculum ignited relevant and topical discussions whilst the activities allowed every individual to take on a range of leadership and team roles. I am sure the skills that I have nurtured over the week will prove invaluable in many aspects of my personal, academic and professional future.”

Attended the 5-day course as a PhD student, University of Oxford.

“Within my college, I organise a leadership programme myself and, throughout my time at university, I have participated in many a course on employability skills. None of them has brought together such an array of important tools and addressed personal development in as holistic and interactive a way as Brightwings. What makes this course powerful is that it is built with the immediate application of new knowledge at its core. Not only do the trainers convey academically-founded and personal insights in a way that appeals to people of different learning habits and professional ambitions, but they also give students the chance to practice new skills straight away and to receive constructive feedback.

The course is well paced and includes time for introspection as well as time for group work. It highlights how professional “success" is often not accidental but requires a great amount of self-awareness, clear goals and a handful of skills that are often overlooked in similar courses. Having completed the Brightwings course, I now have a better understanding of the unique skillset that I can contribute within my team, am more aware of my personal leadership tendencies and their associated pitfalls, and have more and sharper tools to help me realise my ambitious goals.“

Sara attended a presentation skills training as 1st year PhD student. In less than a year, she and 3 others on the course won awards for their presentations at academic conferences.

“I had a one-day course with Brightwings and it has to be one of the best and most engaging courses I have been on! I left the course feeling more confident and self-aware of what things I need to work on in future presentations. I had the chance to use some of the techniques in a lab group presentation the week after!

I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to gain more confidence in public speaking and giving presentations.”

Attended the 5-day course as an undergraduate, University of Oxford. She now works at Deloitte.

“This course is great for everybody regardless of what state are at in planning for their career. For those that have experience and know what they want to do is really good because it can help refine your technique and you can practice being in that business environment. And it's also great for those that don't know what they want to do - it gives them the time to think about their values of what they want out of their career and it can give them the skills and experience they need for when they go into work.”

Attended a 2-day remote course as a PhD student, University of Oxford, followed by modules on leadership and project management

“The Brightwings training course provided an incredibly rewarding and valuable start to my life as a D.Phil. student at the University of Oxford.

The core training enabled me to come together with 10+ strangers over Zoom and, within two-days of fantastic engagement, I felt as if I had known the group for years. Camille's exceptional delivery cultivated honesty and reflection amongst us all, ensuring that we all took stock of our skills (soft and technical) before laying out our ambitions for our upcoming research. The collective progress of the group was especially clear in public speaking, where Camille's highly interactive approach to training generated an instant pay-off - everyone was able to articulate themselves with greater confidence and clarity throughout the rest of the activities.

Following the completion of the core training, I joined two further trainings delivered by Camille in leadership and project management. These courses have proved exceptionally valuable not only in planning my upcoming research, but also in changing my approach to preparing and structuring my supervisor meetings. More immediately, I have also utilised my learnings when designing and delivering projects throughout this term's NERC DTP core training (Software Engineering module & Statistics and Data Management module).“

Attended the 5-day course as a Masters student, University of Oxford.

“The Brightwings course was incredibly helpful to me and I am sure to everyone else who had the privilege of attending. Over the course of the week, I got to learn more about myself and my values, as well as how to use that knowledge. As a graduate who is looking to transition into a new phase of life, I definitely had a sharper understanding of what I needed to look out for and do in terms of planning my career and managing projects that will come up. Having spent years in academia, the course also reminded me that to be a successful academic, student or employee doesn't just involve intelligence or hard work, but also a holistic and strategic response to self-development. I would definitely recommend it!”