Work practices, skill use and the nature of the workforce in the Australian red-meat-processing sector have undergone significant change over the last few decades. This report shows that training in the meat-processing sector is now oriented towards on-the-job induction and the learning of single tasks rather than having a trade-based approach (industrial butcher). This has done nothing to prevent the high rates of labour turnover in the sector, but may play a role in helping workers who are entering or re-entering the paid labour force to move onto other areas of the labour market.