We believe in human beings.
We trust the power of conversation, and we work every day to make it easier to practice the conversations that boost energy and generate results. This is how we got here.
A brief history of Skillgym
Where it started
The origin of Skillgym goes back to 2004, when we started experimenting with digital technology in adult learning. We were dreaming of tools that improve behavior through practice. Our first behavioral simulation was born that year.
The choice
In 2007, seeing what practice through simulation was doing for our early clients in communication skills, we dropped every other learning technology and focused on one thing: a digital gym for conversations. The concept of Skillgym was born.
The lab
In 2011 Skillgym became a division of Swiss-based Lifelike, with a lab to turn the idea into a product. Since then the method has grown with academic partners, international recognitions and published research. We have kept the spirit of our origins: a small company of people who treat each other like family, live the principle of work-life balance, and share one mission.
Connecting the dots
Conversations, and practice
Training people to become better leaders is a daunting mission, and we knew it would not be easy. Our first choice was to focus on conversations: the ability to share ideas, choices and decisions with other people. Our second was to focus all our energy on practice. There has never been a shortage of resources explaining how to lead a conversation; what was missing was a way to turn that knowledge into action, performance and results.
What makes people change
Practicing makes all the difference, so we went to work on what really makes people change at their core. We started studying the method years ago, and today the research on expertise and the neuroscience of learning confirm the relationship between generating experiences and the changes that occur in the brain. With the help of some of the best leadership experts around the world, we built a curriculum that defines exactly which conversations, values and styles to practice.
Getting there
The result is a method that lets leaders of today and tomorrow experience the situations that matter, without wasting time: the twenty percent of conversations that produce eighty percent of the results.
Every day we have the privilege of seeing people treat Skillgym as a safe place to develop for their future. We can't thank them enough, and that is why we try to make it a little better each day.
“Helping people change the world, one conversation at a time.”
Skillgym in numbers
- Since 2004
- first behavioral simulation
- 500K+
- professionals who have practiced
- 6M
- practice sessions
- 30+
- languages
Our team of fewer than twenty people handles the entire solution: methodology design, competency mapping, scenario authoring, algorithms and customer support. Every day, people around the world schedule a conversation with one of our characters.
Recognized along the way
Training Industry Watch List
Experiential Learning Technologies Watch List, 2024, 2025 and 2026: three consecutive years.
View sourceWorld’s Top EdTech Companies 2026
Included in the 2026 ranking by TIME and Statista.
View sourceLearning Technologies Awards 2023
Gold, Most Innovative New Learning Technologies Product (International).
View sourceThree things we believe
Practice over knowledge.
We believe in practice over knowledge.
Self-awareness.
We believe in self-awareness, the one factor that makes the difference with everything else.
Technology that solves problems.
We believe that technology is nothing if it does not solve real problems.
The problem we chose
Training explains what to do. It rarely trains how to execute under pressure. We chose the hard problem: not transferring information, but changing behavior with real interlocutors, when it counts.
We care about your data
Trust is the foundation of any relationship, in business and elsewhere. That is why we treat our clients' data with the utmost care: we keep the minimum personal data needed, we share it only with the processors listed in the Data Processing Agreement, and every registered user can access, update or delete their data.
- Data Privacy
How personal data is collected, kept and deleted.
- Security
Hosting, access control and technical safeguards.
- Our Commitments
The principles we hold ourselves to.
Read the method
From the Skillgym blog, for those who want the full reasoning.
Building a Community of Leadership Abundance
Leadership is recognized, not claimed, and it generates new leadership. How empowering conversations turn scarcity into abundance across an organization.
5 min read
The True Learning Scope Behind a Digital Role Play
Digital role plays fail when used to drill scripts in intensive bootcamps. They work when they build experience: scoring wide, not high, at a sustainable pace.
6 min read
We are always available for a conversation
Follow us on LinkedIn and read the blog, where we publish our ideas on how training should help people become their best version.
Questions and applications
If you have a general question about us, or think you can make a difference and want to apply, write to info[at]lifelike.ch. We would love to start a conversation.
Training professionals and partners
If you would like to explore ways to use Skillgym in your business, or to become a local partner, let us know.
Learn more about Training professionals and partnersWhere you can find us
The headquarters of Skillgym are in Switzerland, at Lifelike SA, Corso San Gottardo 84, 6830 Chiasso.
- Open in Google Maps
Corso San Gottardo 84, 6830 Chiasso, Switzerland
See where the method is going
The method keeps evolving with the research and with every program. See it in a demo.