Practices of mentoring are didactical activities taking place within schools and related to school development. This paper examines current practices of mentor education in three Nordic teacher education institutions. The aim is through an integrated analysis to contribute with new knowledge about pre-requisitions and processes related to the professional development of NQTs and mentoring teachers. The central idea is that actions by members of an organization (here schools) are largely determined by their interests, e.g. their ideas about necessary or desirable working conditions (Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002). Based on a pilot study conducted in the three institutions (2 Norwegian and 1 Finnish) using the same questionnaire for data collection, a comparison will be presented exposing various interests and ideas about working conditions which have an impact on mentees’ and mentors’ professional learning. The empirical data are discussed according to four orientations; Pragmatic, concerning concrete issues, like distribution of time, planning, meeting parents etc.; Social, concerning group dynamics, relations, conflicts etc.; Cognitive (Epistemic), concerning “knowledge production”, evaluation, working culture etc.; Personal, concerning motivation, career ambitions, workload, wellbeing etc.