The independent study, conducted by OpinionMatters on behalf of SkillSoft, took place at the end of November 2011 and involved telephone interviews with more than 500 CEOs / MDs with 250+ employees across 13 business sectors.
The results revealed 31% of businesses plan to increase training budgets by 10% over the next 12 months. This figure rises to 41% in the sales and marketing industries, and to 44% in the manufacturing industry.
Just 3.6% of businesses planning to reduce their training budgets over the coming year.
Kevin Young, managing director of SkillSoft EMEA, said: "This research is evidential proof that organisations are continuing to emphasise the importance of training and development.
"But many of these companies might be missing a trick - only 6.6% of CEOs polled said that return on investment is the top selection criteria in choosing a training programme. Unfortunately some organisations don't realise the importance of ROI, as it should be a higher criteria when discussing learning and development."
