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First newsletter of the MENTOR ME project
Dear readers,
you are receiving the first newsletter dedicated to the international MENTOR ME project, which we began implementing in April 2026 together with five other partners from three European countries – Slovakia, Germany and Bulgaria. Through this newsletter, we would like to provide you with information about the project itself, our partners and everything we have achieved so far. We believe that, together with you, we will be able to fulfil our goal – to create an effective mentoring programme in which experienced and less experienced teachers work together and support one another.
Stay tuned!
According to a UNESCO document published in October 2024, the world is facing a critical teacher shortage. The Global Report on Teachers highlights the urgency of this issue and calls for immediate action. The report reveals a projected shortfall of 44 million primary and secondary school teachers by 2030 and examines the complexity of this crisis. In Europe itself, the teaching profession is becoming less attractive, leading to problems with teacher retention. European governments and teachers’ unions estimate that more than 80,000 teaching posts remain unfilled. At the same time, the average age of current teachers across Europe is rising dramatically. Fewer than 10% of all teachers are under the age of 30, while more than 50% are aged 50 or over (Age Structure of Teachers in Selected EU Countries, Masaryk University, 2022).
To address this problem, it is essential to provide teachers with comprehensive support at every stage of their careers. This means equipping them with the competences and tools they need to succeed, while also making the profession more attractive. A key aspect is facilitating a smooth transition into the teaching profession and motivating teachers to continuously develop their skills.
The MENTOR ME project aims to develop and test an innovative web-based mentoring model for schools. This initiative focuses on strengthening the capacity of the education sector and is aligned with the updated vision of the European Education Area. This vision emphasises the importance of strengthening support for teachers and school leaders throughout their careers and professional development. In addition, schools play a key role in Europe’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and in building future resilience (European Education Area, Quality Education and Training for All, 2019).
Our project focuses on supporting teachers, school leaders and other education professionals by improving the skills of both beginning and experienced teachers. We will introduce a “teacher-mentor-teacher” approach through an E-Mentoring school mentoring model. This approach will help strengthen teachers’ professional development, make the teaching profession more attractive and diverse, and improve teacher retention. In addition, our solution will strengthen school leadership, as school leaders will play a key role in supporting and facilitating the mentoring process.
The MENTOR ME project also seeks to make the teaching profession more attractive to young people and encourage more of them to enter the sector by providing better mentoring and career support from the very beginning.
The MENTOR ME project also aims to support the digital transformation of schools by helping them build capacity and readiness to use digital technologies effectively in all aspects of school life. This will include the creation of an accessible mentoring programme (with modules and resources), which will play a key role in improving the quality of education by providing teachers with continuous support throughout their careers. In addition, the project will focus on directly improving teachers’ digital skills and competences.
Project target groups:
- beginning teachers (less than 2 years of teaching experience; final-year students in teacher education programmes)
- experienced teachers (more than 10 years of teaching experience; teachers leaving the education sector after 5 years of teaching)
- school leaders
- education policy-makers
What are the project’s planned outputs?
- Teacher Support Programme – a combination of software (the programme module) and a set of supporting resources (programme resources)
- MENTOR ME Academy – a combination of mentor training content and online training delivered through the Teacher Support Programme module
- MENTOR ME Policy Paper – a structured framework policy paper offering clear recommendations for integrating teacher mentoring and improving cooperation within the education systems of the partner countries
Who are the project partners?
Project coordinator: Trade Union of Workers in Education and Science in Slovakia
Project partners: 3 countries (SVK, BG, GER)
- Dr. Josef Raabe Slovakia, publisher of professional literature
- Bulgarian Union of Teachers (BTU)
- AdminSoft Ltd., Bulgaria (a company developing and implementing software for education, training and social activities)
- Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra
- EBB Europass Berlin Beratungsbüro GmbH (a centre for international education and support for innovative educational projects)
First face-to-face (F2F) meeting of the project partners
On 4 June 2026, the first international meeting of the project partners took place at Hotel Tatra in Bratislava. The meeting was coordinated and co-organised by Dr. Josef Raabe Slovakia together with the Trade Union of Workers in Education and Science in Slovakia. Representatives of all project partners from Slovakia, Bulgaria and Germany attended. The agenda included introductions of the individual partners, a presentation of the project, familiarisation with the project documentation and funding rules, the launch of the implementation phase, a joint brainstorming session on the content, topics and structure of the first project output, the definition of all partners’ responsibilities, setting up monitoring from the very beginning, establishing working teams, and agreeing on communication arrangements.
What are our next steps in the project?
At the first meeting, we discussed with our partners the structure, format, content and thematic areas of the programme for teachers. We divided the tasks, and in the coming period we will work on the concept for the first output (WP2/A1) – the Teacher Support Programme. The project partners have also scheduled an online micro-meeting for August 2026, where we will review the first outputs produced and agree on the next tasks to be completed within the project. In the meantime, we are working on the final version of the project website and preparing the first project newsletter, which will be released to the public at the beginning of August.
Where can you find us?
You can find more information about the MENTOR ME project and current developments on our official website, where you can subscribe to the newsletter, and on our Facebook profile:
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