This article describes the response of 483 teacher trainees when asked their motivation for undertaking teacher training. There was no predetermined agenda, and the open responses were analysed into six distinct categories covering 93 per cent of responses. These included career-related reasons such as wanting a rewarding and challenging career or changing career to more vocational motivations such as wanting to teach children and love of the subject. There were clear differences between trainees from different subjects which reflected similar findings in the main project concerned with differences between students in their learning preferences. These differences have clear implications for recruitment policy and the nature of courses presented for these distinctive student cohorts.