Customer focus is essential in ensuring the performance of an organisation including education and training organisations. Customers in the education and training sectors consist of a variety of groups including students, parents, industry, civil society and the relevant authorities. Other than that, the faculty and staff are also internal customers whose needs and expectation need to be satisfied. Students are the main customers, and they receive training and support services at institutions. Instructors and staff are prime movers in training and services in an institution. However, research and literature on customer focus practices in the education and training sectors are still limited, particularly in the skills training sector in Malaysia. This study is carried out so that the gap can be reduced. This study aimed to examine the extent to which customer focus is practised by skills training institutions in Malaysia and to evaluate the extent of the impact of this focus on the performance of institutions that offer such training. A questionnaire survey was used as the research instrument. Questionnaires were distributed to the managers of 500 training institutions throughout the country. A total of 218 completed and eligible questionnaires for analysis were received, representing a response rate of 43.6%. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The results show that student, instructor and staff focus practice are is at a moderate level, which is at about five of seven points on the Likert scale. The regression analysis shows that the student focus and the instructor and staff focus significantly affect the performance of the institutions. These findings demonstrate that customer focus greatly influences the performance of the organisation, and therefore, management of these institutions should increase efforts to ensure customer satisfaction.