Summary Background Teaching, assessment and feedback skills are documented globally as required graduate attributes for medical students. By integrating teacher training into curricula, the importance of teaching and educational scholarship is highlighted. In this study, we used self‐determination theory ( SDT ) to consider medical students’ motivation to voluntarily participate in a short teacher training programme. Methods Thirty‐eight senior medical students were invited to attend a teacher training programme at a major tertiary teaching hospital. Participating students were asked to respond to one question: ‘Why did you volunteer to take part in the teacher training course?’ Self‐determination theory was used as a conceptual framework to identify and code recurrent themes in the data. Results In total, 23/38 (61%) of invited students chose to participate in the programme, and 21/23 (91%) of the students responded to the survey. Students’ motivation to participate in the teacher training programme were related to: (1) autonomy – their enjoyment of their current voluntary involvement in teaching; (2) competence – a recognition of the need for formal training and certification in teaching, and as an essential part of their future career in medicine; (3) relatedness – the joint recognition of the importance of quality in teaching, as emphasised by their own learning experiences in the medical programme. Conclusion Students reported being motivated to take part in teacher training because of their enjoyment of teaching, their desire to increase the quality of teaching within medical education, their desire for formal recognition of teaching as a learned skill, plus their recognition of teaching as a requirement within the medical profession. By integrating teacher training into curricula, the importance of teaching and educational scholarship is highlighted