Mentoring has moved center stage in professional education over the last two decades, and it is now a central component of initial and in-service professional learning in public service professions. Data points to the importance of mentoring for promoting quality teaching and for retaining teachers in the system, given the fact that teacher attrition rates of up to 50% worldwide with a shortage of 69 million teachers ( as of 2023). Mentoring is also a key component of principal preparation. Supporting the professional learning of newly appointed principals as instructional leaders contributes to leadership stability. Stable, effective school leadership is a key factor in teacher retention. Although it is not just a matter of numbers, the declaration of the “right to induction” undeniably has a long way to go before becoming a reality. Added to these troubling figures, many cases of mentoring in diverse socio-cultural teaching contexts around the world lack a formalized system of expert mentor support and guidance within the institution, which can be eventually deterrent to novices’ professional development. Thus, after almost four decades of research, mentoring still needs to earn its due place within the institutional discourse of expert practice in the service of professional learning. There is also a need to reconsider mentoring in the rapidly changing world of work and learning, characterized by immigration, increased mobility of persons and ideas, globalization and digitalization. These have fundamentally altered learning and teaching in the professions, raising new challenges and caveats related to issues of equity, quality and ethics. Drawing on studies conducted in Belgium, Chile, Israel, Portugal and Spain, this symposium addresses the above challenges in response to the diversified demands of particular socio-cultural teaching settings and contexts. Our discussant from Israel will consolidate emergent insights and implications for mentoring for quality teacher retention.