This article draws on reflections offered by 80 post-compulsory education and training initial teacher training (PCET ITT) mentors on a mentor-training programme that has been designed by a UK higher education institution and delivered to its four partner colleges since October 2009. The findings are based on questionnaire data that has been gathered from PCET ITT mentors alongside semi-structured interview data from eight mentors. The research has been funded by the higher education institution's University Research Fund since July 2011. There appears to be a tension between the ideal recommendation from the mentors that the training programme ought to encourage the development of reflective practice as opposed to training the mentors to make "judgements" on the teaching ability of their students.