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The context for this paper is the decade-long emphasis on the training of Australia’s workforce to make it ‘more efficient and internationally competitive’. Workplace training has been presented in policy documentation as a benign and inclusive support to the Australian worker and has been viewed unproblematically at the level of implementation. However, the gender power relations at the macro-level of policy development and at the micro-level of particular practices in specific workplaces raise concerns about access by women to workplace training. An analysis of some training policy identifies a range of discourses around concepts of ‘flexibility’, ‘inclusivity’, ‘mobility’, ‘the worker’ and ‘industry’. It is argued that these discourses serve to position access to developmental training in such a way as to make it incompatible with many women’s life and work contexts. Furthermore, it is argued that the training policy is insensitive to the power relations in workplaces and to the geographical and labour market variations within Australia. An empirical study of four non-metropolitan workplaces, where feminised occupations are strongly represented, explores organisational practices that serve to divide, control and observe women workers, making them ‘known’ in certain ways. A detailed analysis of specific training practices examines the ‘training curriculum’ of each workplace and explores women’s access to its parts. It is argued that workplace training in these organisations, rather than offering women developmental opportunities, reinforces their current discursive positions in the organisations.