SINGAPORE – Only a quarter of the world’s workforce is confident they are equipped with the right skills to advance in their career, according to the latest data from ADP Research.

It’s a sentiment shared across Southeast Asia. Yet, Singapore – whose government has been investing heavily in upskilling and reskilling citizens through the SkillsFuture programme – appears to have the smallest percentage of workers (23%) in the region who believe they are skilled enough to level up their career.

In contrast, Vietnam is leading the way with 29% of its workforce feeling confident in their competencies and career growth potential. This is followed by:

• The Philippines (26%)
• Indonesia (26%)
• Thailand (25%)

Are employers in Southeast Asia investing sufficiently in upskilling?

When it comes to building competencies, about a quarter of workers in Singapore (23%) believe their employers invest in their skills to help them get ahead.

Singapore’s female talent (28%), in particular, said they are confident in their employers’ skilling support, compared to only 20% of their male colleagues.

“Only 24% of workers are confident that they have the skills needed to advance in the next three years of their careers. The world of work is changing at light speed, and organisations need to do their part to close the skills gap,” said Mary Hayes, research director of People & Performance at ADP Research.

Also Read: Are Singaporeans reluctant to upskill in AI?

Benefitting from tech advancements

Findings from ADP’s People at Work 2025 report show how upskilling and reskilling workers boosts companies’ productivity, retention and reputation.

There is, however, untapped potential across the region. “Only a small fraction of workers are upskilled within two years of being hired,” said Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist.

In fact, less than 4% of workers develop new competencies in their first two years at a company. Yet, when skilling programmes are introduced, workers are more than three times more likely to feel productive.

“If companies want to benefit from the enormous technological advancement to come, they must start with investing in the skills and career progression of their workers,” Richardson said.

Also Read: 5 AI skills to future-proof your workforce

Learning in school vs learning on the job

ADP’s report explored the impact of skilling through on-the-job training, compared with the traditional route of formal education. The study raised the question of whether employers were falling short of preparing their workers for the future.

Even before the explosion of generative AI and, more recently, AI agents, the half-life of technical skills was already less than 2.5 years before they became obsolete or less impactful. Today, with businesses constantly evolving their tech stacks and requiring new competencies from workers, the half-life of technical skills could be shorter.

“With rapid-fire advances in technology bearing down on employers and their workers, on-the-job training and continuing education have become just as important as post-secondary schooling, if not more so,” ADP said. “Even workers with advanced college degrees might need to bolster their on-the-job skills.”

Devoting resources to on-the-job development can build a more highly skilled workforce – and fast. This type of investment, ADP said, can result in teams that are “more productive and loyal” to the organisation.

“While post-secondary education matters, the training that organisations do after workers are hired might matter even more,” ADP said.