Purpose: The main purpose of this article is to study the influence of cognitive tasks on mentoring provided and the moderating influence of professional teacher education. Design/methodology/approach: This cross-sectional survey was based on a questionnaire that was sent to a total of 435 employees from 29 pre-schools in Norway. A total of 284 responses were returned, a response rate of 65.3 per cent. Two research hypotheses were formulated. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to develop three measurement models and structural equation modelling (SEM) based on multi-group analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Findings: The results revealed that cognitive tasks increase the occurrence of mentoring provided at work and professional teacher education moderates this relationship. Research limitations/implications: The use of convenience sampling and self-reports are discussed, especially related to representativeness and reporting biases. Practical implications: The findings implicate a need for increased interdisciplinary co-operation both at work and in the teacher education. Originality/value: This is an under-studied area and no previous research has used a confirmatory approach to investigate how cognitive tasks and professional education influence the occurrence of mentoring provided.