International concern to raise educational standards and improve teacher quality has directed attention to the promotion of career-long professional learning (OECD 2005, 2007, 2012). Teacher induction and early professional learning (EPL) have been associated with patterns of attrition, pupil outcomes and teacher well-being. This paper offers a critical examination of ‘travelling policy’ (Alexiadou and Jones 2001) on EPL and the politics of ‘policy borrowing’ in different geo-political contexts (Raffe 2011, Morris 2012). It offers an overview of the European flow of policy ideas on induction and the translation and mediation of ideas within specific teacher education policy communities. Using three illustrative cases - the University of Jyväskylä training school, the ‘hub school’ model promoted by the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and the internship and Deanery models advanced at the University of Oxford – the paper addresses issues of provenance, politics and governance, including the activities of policy entrepreneurs shaping programme and practice architectures. The role of universities in professional education is approached here as a process characterized as being under active development (Scotland), secure (Finland) or contested (England). Particular attention is afforded to the interaction of polices for teacher development with changing patterns of teacher employment in austere times.