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This article reports on research carried out under the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC's) Learning Society Programme. The program comprised 14 projects involving research into the learning society and the ways in which it can contribute to the development of knowledge and skills for employment and in other areas of adult life. The article is one of a series of comparative studies which explore notions of lifelong learning, learning organisation and learning society in Europe and, in some cases, reflect on the use of comparative research in the social sciences. It outlines the introductory steps towards a possible framework for transnational comparisons of continuous vocational training (CVT), also referred to as 'company training'. The authors compare innovations in CVT within companies in the United Kingdom (UK), France and Spain. In the last two decades, CVT has become increasingly associated with organisational change and restructuring for competitiveness and flexibility, but also serves as a buffer against change through the qualification of employees and the anticipation of employment trends and skill requirements. In addition, all three countries have experienced deregulation to varying degrees and the authors demonstrate how each country has developed a form of 'social compromise' between the quest for economic competitiveness and the protection of employees from the effects of deregulation. The article indicates that cross-national comparison of innovation in company training requires the comparison of emerging 'compromises' within increasingly flexible and deregulated environments.