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This study aimed to examine the learning preferences of a group of New Apprentices (both apprentices and trainees) and the training preferences of their workplace trainers, and to explore the ways in which trainers take all these preferences into account when supporting learning in the workplace. Data on personality type and preferred and perceived learning/training environments were gathered from New Apprentices and trainers. Interviews were held with 36 New Apprentices and 30 trainers drawn from three industry areas (community services, manufacturing and retail) in South Australia, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. This study is intended to be exploratory in nature. It takes as its starting point the assumption that, just as particular instructional preferences can be identified for more formalised learning environments (for example, classrooms), so might training preferences (that is, the way workplace trainers actually train) also be identified. The study found that research into learning styles, preferences and differences in Australian vocational education and training (VET) is still in its infancy. Emerging from this study are questions about the respective influences of personality types, of gender and of the nature of work on learning and training preferences. There are questions about the extent to which participants consider they have to bend natural inclinations to fit workplace realities, and about matching and/or mismatching trainer and New Apprentice learner styles, and the influence of these styles on workplace learning outcomes.