Mentoring is often viewed as a key professional learning tool from initial teacher education to senior leadership development. Based on the research, mentor education is a crucial contributor to the success of mentoring programmes (e.g. Ulvik & Sunde, 2013), as mentor quality is essential to effectively support the development of a novice teacher (Ellis et al., 2020). Building on the mapping work of NTI-SEM in the previous presentation and emerging research, this presentation delves into the dynamic and evolving landscapes of mentor education in Nordic countries and Estonia. The presentation will shed light on the unique practices, challenges and opportunities that shape mentoring and interplay between mentors, mentees, and the diverse environments they navigate. As the Nordic Teacher Induction (NTI) network has collaborated for nearly 20 years, we will look backward to describe how the mentor education programs have changed during these years and what has influenced these changes. We will present the current state of play in each country regarding what mentoring education is offered, how mentoring education is supported by education agencies/departments in each country, and how mentor education is possibly changing in light of new EU (Bologna) guidelines. We are looking for answers to the following questions: What kind of content is provided in mentor education, and is it fit for purpose? Is mentoring intricately linked to professional development cycles (for both mentors and mentees), and is it important in contexts with issues recruiting and retaining teachers, as we suspect? We will end this part of the symposium where we have gathered these accounts of mentoring education, looking at what research is being done on mentoring education and how mentoring education professionally develops mentors and then, in turn, schools.

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