The Oxford Strategy Challenge

The Oxford Strategy Challenge (TOSCA) is a team-based experiential learning programme with participants taking part in real strategy-focused client challenges.

The Oxford Strategy Challenge is an opportunity for you to develop a broad range of transferable skills including teamwork, leadership, communication and business awareness. These along with the client relationship experience, will help you demonstrate your potential in applications, on your CV and in interviews.

You will be placed in a small team providing consultancy on a client project. The project you will take part in will be important to your client, an opportunity for hands-on client experience, and to make a real contribution to an organisation.

The Oxford Strategy Challenge is an intense challenge. You will need to consider how you will manage the Challenge alongside your other commitments. Once you have received your client brief and received training, your team will have five days to tackle the challenge and present back to your client.

At the end of the programme, participants will have developed:

An understanding of some of the fundamental business frameworks and models used by consultants - such as SWOT analysis, 4Ps framework, stakeholder mapping, market segmentation and mapping - including the opportunity to apply some of them via case studies and/or client work
Confidence in liaising with a real client and quickly getting to grips with their business
Collaboration and teamwork skills, including working in multi-disciplinary team, assigning team roles and managing team dynamics
Written and verbal communication skills via co-creating and presenting a proposal and final report

Applications are open

Hilary term 2026

The programme will run again during term time in Hilary term 2026. All three workshops will be held in person at the Careers Service.

Apply for the Hilary term programme by Sunday 8 February 2026.

For the purpose of this application please don't use AI/ChatGPT to directly write your application: we really want to hear from you.

What will you get out of it?

The Oxford Strategy Challenge aims to provide you with real-world client experience and development opportunities across eight key employment skills: team working, communication, initiative, creativity, planning, leadership, self-management and business awareness.

You also have the opportunity to develop skills in collaborating effectively as part of a team, managing a client relationship, collecting data under time pressure, reacting quickly to unexpected changes, and summarising and presenting your findings to a client.

This is a competitive programme and places are limited. We recommend taking the time to make a strong application. You may wish to with book a one-to-one appointment with a Careers Adviser to receive feedback on your application before you submit. Please note that the Careers Advisers who run the programme (Fleur Houghton and Jo Allen) will not be able to provide feedback on your application directly.

The schedule for each programme and application links can be found under 'Programme dates' below.

How does it work?

The Oxford Strategy Challenge is a team-based, experiential learning programme. Every aspect of the process presents a learning opportunity. This programme consists of three in-person workshops and a client project. Teams will also complete case studies in-between training sessions to practise the concepts covered and to get to know your team.

Workshops One and Two - Training

The programme begins with a team case exercise and two in-person training sessions. Before the programme starts, you will be assigned to and introduced to your team (usually of four – six people), given the suggested timetable for your project, your client brief, and a short case study to complete as a team before the first training workshop. These workshops help prepare you for the project. Topics include an introduction to consulting techniques, managing the client relationship, and reporting your recommendations.

The Project

The challenge starts with a briefing call with the client on a Thursday. Your team will collaborate over the weekend through to Wednesday when you will present your findings to your client. We encourage teams to schedule an interim check in with their client during the project.

Workshop Three

You will conclude TOSCA by attending a final in-person workshop for teams to share their experiences and reflect on employability skills gained. The workshop will explore how to communicate these skills on CVs, cover letters and during interviews. The workshop will encourage you to think about ‘what’s next?’ after your TOSCA experience and consider next steps in your career planning journey.

Programme commitment

We recognise that participants on TOSCA have to fit this programme around their academic work, and that academic work takes priority. How much time you can spend will vary depending on your other commitments and how you allocate tasks within your team.

This is an intense programme and many teams work over the weekend. However, this is flexible and the time you decide to allocate to this programme will depend on the nature of the challenge and how you distribute tasks in your team. You should liaise with your colleagues so that each member’s peaks and troughs in availability can be covered. If you do have to drop your hours for a short period to address an academic work peak, then please be professional and let your team members know.

Before applying you will need to consider how you will manage this alongside your other commitments.

From participants...

Just wrapped up a fantastic strategy consulting challenge [...] - it was an incredibly rewarding experience and a great opportunity to apply problem-solving in a real business context. - Read Gaspard's testimonial (BA History and Modern Languages)

A fascinating opportunity to work with a real-life client to explore business strategies. - TOSCA Participant Trinity 2025

This experience has been the most valuable thing I have learnt at Oxford and I really don’t say that lightly. As much as the academics teach me invaluable things, often tangible, this internship offered me an intangible lesson in the most unconventional way. By that I mean, there are certain things that cannot be taught unless you are exposed to a particular environment, and sometimes you don’t even know what needs to be learnt unless you are put in that position. TOSCA did exactly that. By putting me in an uncomfortable position, I was able to weave my own way out of it which not only taught me skills I can take into the corporate world but showed me who I am in that space and how I can nurture my own personal strengths! - Meena; TOSCA Participant Michaelmas 2025

Our project was with a UK based charity which provides a wide level of support to a specific area in Kenya such as providing education services, improved farming practises, and implementing new income streams for the local communities such as honey harvesting. We were tasked with streamlining operations on the ground while maintaining their impact, and improving funding from donors. My team managed to come up with 2 main areas to improve on within the short deadline, and we presented our results to the CEO of the charity! Our work was received very positively by the charity and they were impressed with the recommendations we had to offer, which really reinforced the idea of a career in consulting as a potential future pathway for me. I also really enjoyed the teamwork and problem solving aspect of the task, and would definitely recommend it to others who want a taste of consulting work. - TOSCA Participant Michaelmas 2024

Fantastic programme and a deeply rewarding experience. Was wonderful to provide advice to a business in a real-life scenario - it really felt like we were making a tangible difference. - TOSCA Participant Michaelmas 2024

Thank you so much for providing this opportunity, it has been eye-opening in many respects and has given me confidence to apply my research skills in a non-academic context.

I loved my TOSCA experience. It taught me invaluable skills and gave me first-hand experience managing a client relationship. It gave me a really good understanding of the type of work I can expect from a consultancy.

TOSCA gave me a fun and well-rounded introduction to consulting. I learned the consulting basics, applied my new knowledge on interesting case studies, and collaborated with team members from different fields and background. Finally, knowing that we helped make a real-world impact on our client's start-up made it all the more worth it! - Sara, TOSCA Participant Michaelmas term 2025

I really enjoyed the challenge of pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. I was able to incorporate skills I had acquired from other areas of my academic and extracurricular life into this new context. - Frances; Read more about this participant's experiences.

The Oxford Strategy Challenge was a truly transformative journey that prepared us for the real world's challenges. - Abantika; Read more about this participant's experiences.

TOSCA is probably one of the most valuable experiences I have conducted while studying at Oxford. I believe that I'll use the gained skills while applying for my dream job!

This has served as a springboard for my subsequent exploration. I am now aware of so many more opportunities... . It is also reassuring to confirm my time management skills and make myself aware I can explore multiple things while keeping up with school work.

[I] would recommend to anyone regardless of their career aspirations as the skills I gained from it were truly invaluable and could be applicable to any future career.

I gained significantly more experience in leadership and interpersonal relations than I expected.

My personal highlight from the project was learning how to design a socio-technical architecture for cloud-based business processes. For the first time, I attempted to visualise a professional business process, producing several drafts that were certainly imperfect—but deeply confidence-boosting. This experience not only equipped me with a crucial employable skill relevant to product management and tech consulting, but also unexpectedly recalled my interest in platform economies and platform capitalism. - Read Andy's testimonial (MPhil in Global and Area Studies)

The programme was excellent. It gave us initiative, allowed us to think and manage for ourselves, and will be a really useful addition for my CV.

I found this a really helpful experience - I went in wanting to test myself and I feel that I did that 100% and was quite surprised by how much I managed to achieve in such a short time frame, from conceptualising the problem(s) to collecting significant amounts of data and synthesising all this for the final report and recommendations - it was incredibly valuable.

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FAQs

What will it cost me?

There is no cost to you for taking part. You won’t be charging for your projects so there will be no charge to the organisations either.

Participants in the Oxford Strategy Challenge do not receive a consultancy payment for undertaking the programme.

How much time will it take?

We recognise that participants on TOSCA have to fit this programme around their academic work, and that academic work takes priority. How much time you can spend will necessarily vary depending on your other commitments.

This is an intense programme and many teams work over the weekend. However this is flexible and the time you decide to allocate to this programme will depend on the nature of the challenge and how you distribute tasks in your team. You should liaise with your colleagues so that each member’s peaks and troughs in availability can be covered. If you do have to drop your hours for a short period to address an academic work peak, then please be professional and let your team members know.

Before applying to this programme, you will need to consider how you will manage this alongside your other commitments.

Due to the time commitment required, we do not recommend students attempt to complete a Micro-Internship alongside this programme if TOSCA is taking place during the vacation. You will need to choose which programme you would like to complete. We recommend students do not apply if they have already, or will be, involved in other significant activities that may clash with the time you can dedicate to this challenge. This is to ensure that you can effectively contribute and support your team members.

What can I expect to learn during the programme?

At the end of the programme, participants will have developed:

An understanding of some of the fundamental business frameworks and models used by consultants - such as SWOT analysis, 4Ps framework, stakeholder mapping, market segmentation and mapping - including the opportunity to apply some of them via case studies and/or client work
Confidence in liaising with a real client and quickly getting to grips with their business
Collaboration and teamwork skills, including working in multi-disciplinary team, assigning team roles and managing team dynamics
Written and verbal communication skills via co-creating and presenting a proposal and final report

Who is this programme aimed at?

This is a learning and development programme designed to give students a foundation in business and consulting skills. Therefore TOSCA is primarily aimed at students with little business and/or consulting experience. Please ensure that your application makes clear your motivations for applying.

Does it matter what subject I’m studying or what year I am in?

Absolutely not – we welcome current Oxford University students from 1st years to DPhils; from English to Medical science students – with everything in between.

Unfortunately, due to high demand, we cannot accept applications from Said Business School students*, Visiting Students, Research Staff, alumni, or those who have previously participated (you can apply if you have applied before but were not accepted).

* Exceptions: MSc Law and Finance, MSc Financial Economics, DPhils, BA Economics & Management

What do I need in order to take part?

The programme will be delivered via Canvas. You will need internet access for the duration of the programme. All of the workshops will be delivered in-person. Client meetings will take place remotely. If you have any questions about accessing any of the workshops, or client meetings please email courses@careers.ox.ac.uk

Can I choose a project?

There isn’t an opportunity for participants to choose a specific project on this programme. The course leaders assign client projects and teams are mixed to bring as much diversity and breadth of subject background to each group as possible.

All of the client projects are developed specifically for TOSCA and they are designed to allow participants to develop a wide range of employability skills and experience of consultancy work rather than providing experience with a specific organisation or sector. Please note, this lack of choice is generally reflective of the way in which many consultancy companies work, where there may not be the opportunity for consultants (especially more junior ones) to have a say in the projects to which they are allocated.

What if I am successful and am assigned a client that I do not want to work for?

Projects are screened for their suitability of the programme and we endeavour to ensure that topics and sectors covered are reflective of typical consultancy challenges. (Please see examples below). As mentioned above, if you become a consultant, it is likely that you may not get much say in the projects you work on, and so developing strategies to approach projects you are less interested in can be a useful process for your future career. We would encourage you to consider the positives you’ll gain from the experience, even if you don’t end up on your ideal project, such as an opportunity to develop your core employability skills that transfer across sectors.

What do previous projects look like?

The student consultant teams support businesses with their strategic development in varied ways; for example, researching and prioritising new market opportunities, conducting competitor audits to inform marketing strategies, analysing internal and external data to create suitable benchmarks, and mapping and recommending improvements to key business functions (from supply chain operations to reporting processes).

Organisations span a vast array of sectors including tech start-ups, consumer product brands, marketing and events agencies, and charities with both human and environmental missions working in the UK and internationally. As an example, you can learn more about a previous TOSCA project by reading student reflections on their project with Olga's Fine Foods.

What are you looking for in applications?

We’re looking for applicants to demonstrate their personal interest, motivation, and commitment to learning about working with clients, and/or careers in or related to business and consulting.

Please ensure you are specific enough about what you are hoping to learn in the context of the learning objectives of the programme and draw on your personal experiences.

Please don't use AI/ChatGPT to write your application. You need good communication skills to work in consulting and you are better at communicating about yourself than AI is.

When will I be updated about my application?

All applications will be reviewed after the closing date and applicants will be notified by the 19 February. You will need to confirm your place by 22 February. Please refer to the 'programme dates' below for further information.

Programme Dates

Hilary term 2026 programme

This Challenge takes place during Hilary term. All three workshops will be held in person at the Careers Service.