The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the social basis of knowledge transfer, viewing it in a wider context and questioning the usefulness of some of the previous programmes. The empirical basis of this work stems from a series of research projects undertaken in Cornwall over the past 5 years, which considered the impacts of training programmes in the County on land-based businesses. Cornwall has had a very organised agricultural sector that has been determined to use the opportunity of EU Objective one funding to make the sector more competitive, a central part of which has been the provision of training, at a variety of levels and through a number of mechanisms. In the county the English Vocational Training Scheme was altered to allow participants to claim for either childcare or someone to watch over their stock, whilst they took up the training opportunity. It was this scheme that we investigated, initially looking for any new social networks that might have arisen during the training and later how the information from the training was diffused. The resulting social networks and interview data revealed that many of the farm businesses taking part in these projects had a very narrow base of support and advice. Although highly embedded in their communities, with solid local contacts, these were not extensive social networks. The result was that the information about the training was not diffused very widely often going no further than the immediate family. Therefore it was not part of a wider discussion about opportunities or possibilities for the business; rather it was often treated as being of significant competitive advantage and kept close within the key actors in the business. The interview data revealed that the main competitors the business principals believed that they faced were their farming neighbours.