Although professional training or development opportunities can help university academics to expand their competences and implement high quality educational practices, academics differ in the extent to which they engage in such learning opportunities and their resulting learning gains. A theoretical explanation for these differences involves their motivations in the form of achievement goals. Accordingly, in the current study we investigated the effects of academics' achievement goals on their learning engagement and learning gains in professional development courses. Forty-eight German university academics completed assessments of achievement goals prior to course participation, their learning engagement during the course (three short assessments measuring: effort, learning intensity, risk-taking, elaboration, implementation, and persistence), and their learning gains afterwards. Latent growth curve modeling revealed a significant influence of achievement goals on the overall levels of learning engagement. Specifically, learning-approach goals led to more functional learning engagement while work-avoidance goals led to less functional learning engagement. Further analyses confirmed that academics' achievement goals were related to the amount they learned, mediated by their learning engagement. These findings highlight the importance of supporting academics' achievement goals to ensure quality learning experiences.