Dr Skippen graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Medicine/Surgery with Honours. He spent the next few years working at St Vincents Hospital in Sydney before nine months working in Armenia with Medecins Sans Frontieres.
He completed general ophthalmology training at Sydney Eye Hospital. This was followed by a rigorous Clinical Oculoplastic and Orbital Fellowship at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, United Kingdom. Dr Skippen gained further cosmetic and reconstructive eyelid, facial and orbital subspecialty expertise inItaly, where he undertook Clinical Fellowship training in Genoa and Milan with Dr Francesco Bernardini.