The job of a teacher requires professionalism and, in the case of an inexperienced teacher, a lot of effort. Researchers have shown that the first working years are of crucial importance to a newly qualified teacher (NQT) in terms of further personal development as the first school and teaching experience either encourages or discourages the advance of their careers as teachers (Ginns, Heirdsfield, Atweh, & Watters, 2001). Therefore, the different ways to support newly qualified teachers have been a relevant topic for discussion of the international education policy.

The importance of induction of NQTs within the continuum of continuing professional development for all teachers is widely documented and generally includes three main arguments: extension of knowledge and skills to the practical arena through continuous learning while teaching, professional socialisation, and commitment to whole-school improvement and the profession (e.g., Killeavy, 2006; Eisenschmidt, 2006). Previous researches (e.g., Britton, Paine, Pimm, & Raizen, 2003) emphasise the importance of supporting newly qualified teachers and providing effective teacher induction to national agendas. Several countries (e.g., Estonia, Britain, Germany, Norway, Finland, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, etc.) have implemented support activities between the initial training of teachers and their further professional development through the formal and non-formal induction programmes.

Previous researches have evaluated the induction procedures (e.g., Jones, 2002; Ball & Cohen, 1999); the aspect of co-mentoring (e.g., Barrera, Braley, & Slate, 2010; Ingersoll & Strong, 2011) and the newly qualified teacher’s collective adaptation (e.g., Harrison, Lawson, & Wortley, 2005) have been extensively studied. However, less attention has been paid to the support and its content offered outside the school staff during the course of the induction year (e.g., university collaboration).

Since 2004, Estonia has been implementing the induction year system in order to support professional development of NQTs. In addition to mentoring at school as a part of the induction year, NQTs are able to participate in induction seminars at university, which reflect on the experience of the first working year(s) and include analysing the most problematic issues as well as solving them.

The authors consider it very important to widely introduce the experience of teachers participating in induction seminars, their organisation, and content. The aim of this study was to analyze the actual content of induction seminars as well as the meaning and value of induction seminars for NQTs.

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