This paper focuses on training and development (T&D) policies and practices to explore how multinational companies (MNCs) localise their human resources within their subsidiaries in a developing country. It uses qualitative research methods to examine three US and three Japanese MNCs operating in the automotive and fast‐moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry in Vietnam. The paper identifies both home‐ and host‐country effects as significant factors in the transfer of MNCs' T&D policies and practices. Clear home‐country effects are evident in rigorous attempts of both US and Japanese MNCs to transfer and implement formalised and centrally controlled training programs. Host‐country effects manifest themselves in the instability of the institutional environment, weak associations among employers’ groups, and fragmented bargaining practices that encourage employer and employee opportunism, particularly ‘poaching’ and ‘job‐hopping’. These lead to MNCs' hesitation to invest in T&D, and the lack of job rotation and a tendency to train ‘specialists’ rather than ‘generalists’ in the Japanese firms. The paper also discusses the interaction of foreign owned and indigenous firms in a very tight labour market at the highly skilled end that results in a ‘brain drain’ phenomenon on human resource development (HRD).