<p>Practical school phases are central elements in teacher training, whereby the relationship between students and the supervisors at the school as well as the individual self-efficacy expectations of the students prove to be conducive to the acquisition of professional skills. This article examines the use of learning opportunities in the internship as part of an offer-use model. The data from a&#xa0;quantitative survey of <i>n</i> = 343 students in a&#xa0;secondary school teaching degree program show that the relationship between the students and their mentors in the internship can be identified as the central predictor of the use of learning opportunities. In line with existing studies, teacher self-efficacy expectations are also positively correlated with the use of learning opportunities. Another factor that can be empirically proven in this study is the perceived coherence between internships and university courses. Personality characteristics of students, on the other hand, only have a&#xa0;weak influence on the use of learning opportunities. Distal individual prerequisites such as age and gender or internship-specific organizational aspects do not appear to influence the use of learning opportunities. This suggests that in practical phases, the organization of relationships in mentoring and the interlinking of the content of these practical phases with the accompanying university teaching, i.e. horizontal coherence, is important for the use of learning opportunities. The article discusses measures to strengthen coherence, the professional relationship and the self-efficacy expectations of students.</p>