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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 reports on a study involving an intra-European comparison of multiskilling in the three sectors of engineering, construction and residential care, in South Wales and two regions of Germany. A 'matched pair' approach involving the matching of small- and medium-sized organisations of similar size and product/service was adopted and the authors highlight some of the main difficulties in devising, conducting and analysing the results of international research in organisations.