This research brief examines what countries have learned from the implementation of training and retraining programmes as part of their recovery strategies in response to the global economic crisis of 2008–09. The brief summarizes the findings of studies of experience in nine countries – Belgium, Canada, Germany, Republic of Korea, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States (Hansen, 2012). The findings presented here show how training and retraining can form an integral part of effective crisis response strategies; although, in the absence of impact evaluations, these findings must be considered provisional, they nevertheless offer useful indications of the factors behind both success and difficulty in implementing such measures.