This presentation outlines the background, development and present state of the actual concerning support for newly qualified teachers (NQT) and the teacher induction system in Sweden.

The emergence of a nationwide induction system to support NQTs was strengthened by the decision of the 1992 Congress of the National Union of Teachers in Sweden (Lärarnas Riksförbund) to work for teacher registration in Sweden. Teacher induction and mentoring were also regarded as associated issues. This was followed in 1995 by a national agreement between the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and the two teachers’ unions. One component in this agreement was that it gave new teach­ers the right to be supported by a mentor and to participate in an induction programme. This can be regarded as the first milestone for NQT mentoring in Sweden.

Support for NQTs was high on the educational agenda in 2006 when an Official Investigation was launched, which in 2008 proposed a national mandatory induction system, with mentoring, a probationary year and the registration of teachers as central components (SOU, 2008:52). This was implemented in 2010-2011. However, the teacher registration issue led to several challenges that later occasioned changes in the legislation. Further, in the middle of 2014 principals’ evaluations of NQTs were scrapped and teacher registration was instead provided on graduation from teacher education. This meant that mentoring became less prioritized, even though there was still an obvious need for it. The presentation ends by concluding that since 2014 the issue of mentoring has largely been submerged by other ‘more important’ issues, even though the legislation for it is still in place.