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Published: 2024-08-27

Language programme to strengthen employees' skills in Swedish and English

NEWS A new language programme, starting as a pilot in the autumn semester 2024, will offer a wide range of courses in Swedish and English for employees at Umeå University. The aim is to provide tools for a sustainable working life and strengthen the strategic supply of skills.

“Improving employees' language skills in Swedish and English increases quality throughout the university's operations, which is in line with the university's vision of having supportive systems and services that promote cutting-edge education, research and innovation. Umeå University is successful in recruiting staff and students from other countries, but to utilise the full competence of the staff, good knowledge of Swedish is needed. We also see that technical and administrative staff are requesting courses in English to best support teachers, researchers and students who come from other countries”, says Vice-Chancellor Hans Adolfsson.

Varied offer to meet different needs

In October 2023, a pre-study was launched, which resulted in an application to the Local Development Fund (LUF) for funding for a four-year pilot project. Funding was granted and the aim is to turn the project into a long-term organisation.

“The employer as well as employees face several challenges when employees are not able to fully participate in all parts of an organisation that is situated in a Swedish-speaking context. A well-established language programme provides conditions for the employer to offer participation and for the employee to exercise good employeeship”, says Lars Nordlander, Head of Human Resources.

The project group that worked on the pre-study has designed the proposal based on current research, workshops with subject-specialised teachers, external analysis and evaluations, and experiences from previous language courses at Umeå University.

“Something we particularly considered was that technical and administrative staff requests skills development in English. The focus on this staff category is one of the parts of the proposal that feels like an exciting direction for the work with competence development at Umeå University. Another is the variety of competence development activities that are included in the proposal, both in terms of duration and content”, says Frankie Ekerholm, project manager for the pre-study.

About the pilot phase

The pilot is divided into two phases and runs from the autumn semester 2024 to the spring semester 2028. In phase 1, courses and activities will be implemented as pilot activities with ongoing evaluations and financed by LUF. In phase 2, courses and activities will be revised based on the evaluation of phase 1 and financed by course fees.

The project owner for the four-year pilot round is the Vice-Chancellor and the project manager is the Head of Human Resources.

Recruitment of the project manager for the pilot is ongoing.

Questions about the pilot:

Lars Nordlander
Human resources director
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Linda Bergéli
Human resources strategist
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Questions about the pilot study

Frankie Ekerholm
Project manager
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