Investing in skills: How can businesses make training pay off?

CHALLENGES in upskilling and reskilling have eclipsed longstanding worries about foreign manpower as the most prevalent manpower concern after manpower costs, indicated the National Business Survey 2025 – Manpower and Wages Edition published by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF).

Nearly half of all companies – up from just a quarter the year before – cited skills development as a major pain point.

Last year, Singapore’s training participation rate fell to a nine-year low of 40.7 per cent. This begs the question: Why do so many companies hold back from training workers despite recognising the pressing need for upskilling?