This paper examines the relationship between a firm's training motives and the quality of apprenticeship training. Data on training quality and training motives are obtained by interviewing former apprentices. The paper employs a novel measure for training quality based on subjective survey data on the firm's training effort. It is found that firms that train apprentices because of a future need for qualified workers provide better quality training than firms that do not have future benefits from training. (Contains 5 notes, 7 tables and 1 figure.)