SummaryAlthough subspecialty training goals for junior hospital doctors have not been evaluated, they are potentially useful for assessing clinical competence. A questionnaire was sent to medical residents, full‐time pulmonary teaching staff, and community‐based physicians who were asked to rate the importance of diagnosing and managing selected pulmonary diseases for the future practices of young hospital doctors. The latter also rated their perceived preparedness for the same training goals. Generally good intra‐ and intergroup agreement about the relevance of most of the training goals was observed, although the hospital doctors rated a greater number of items to be more important than did the two other groups. This finding may be attributed to institutional influences and to many clinical abilities expected of all physicians. Immunological or fibrotic and paediatric respiratory disorders were rated least important by most respondents. The hospital doctors disagreed on the basis of the distribution of their ratings about their preparedness for the same goals, which probably reflects varying training experiences and background. The process of developing general professional training goals in a subspecialty requires discussion, identification, and consensus to identify and potentially correct areas of weakness, with allowance for institutional training patterns. A survey such as described in this study can provide data that can help measure clinical competence and support or define curricular ch