Enhancing employee competences through beginner Swedish

The Nordplus project Beginner Swedish for multilingualism, a Nordic-Baltic initiative, engaged Finnish, Estonian, and Lithuanian students in beginner-level Swedish language studies, aiming to enhance their employability and intercultural competence. The aim was to enhance students’ employability via learning a neighboring language.

Learning 2+ foreign languages is a part of the European language policy, and it includes the idea of citizens learning at least two languages besides their mother tongue (EU 2005).

Swedish from Scratch online material

In the three-year project 37 students participated in the pilot courses studying the Swedish from Scratch online materials created in the project. The material package for beginner level included linguistic and cultural contents also aiming to develop employee competences such as computer literacy, intercultural communication, creativity, problem solving and teamwork.

The project offered students possibilities learn Swedish on level A1, which is defined as a beginner level on the Common Framework of Reference for Languages (EU 2021) and gain insights on cultural phenomena in Sweden and the Swedish-speaking Finland.

All the participant institutions participated in the intensive program in 2024 but the implementation of the project online pilot courses was slightly different in the participating institutions. In Estonia the online material supplemented in-class learning and in Finland and Lithuania the learning was mostly online. The project gave students in Lithuania and Finland access to online Swedish level A1 courses.

Participants were intrigued by the offering

The pilot course participants expressed interest in acquiring skills in a new language: a neighboring or the second language of their study country. The cultural contents and intensive program visits provided first-hand experiences in the Swedish-speaking culture in Finland as the course was arranged in a Swedish speaking environment.

The students felt that skills in Swedish would enhance their competitiveness in the job market. Some participants wished to reach an advanced level to be able to work in the language. Both the Swedish from Scratch Moodle and the Weblink Moodle were found beneficial and functional.

Swedish from Scratch – A scalable model for language learning, employability, and intercultural competence

Beginner level studies in Swedish are now accessible in the participant universities and the outcomes may be used as pre-arrival materials for incoming students, for staff training, and can be incorporated into curricula. Also, the content may be used in corporate training and when preparing students for exchange and international internships.

The long-term impact of the Swedish from Scratch course is supported by its inclusion in the curricula of the participating institutions, ensuring continued access for future student cohorts. The course materials remain openly accessible, allowing structured learning within elective programs and independent self-study.

Key lessons learnt in the project process (Brazauskaitė-Zubavičienė 2025) were:

• Institutions should prioritise pre-emptive IT support by investing in thorough technical onboarding and troubleshooting resources to ensure smooth course access.
• Designing courses with tiered content would allow educators to accommodate diverse student backgrounds and learning needs better.
• Continuous communication through motivational messages and check-ins has proven vital in sustaining student engagement, retention, and morale.
• Blending asynchronous study with periodic synchronous elements has demonstrated superior outcomes in language competence, reinforcing the value of hybrid instructional models.

As a project Swedish for Beginners – Multilingualism to enhance employability has surpassed its goals, achieving advancements in language learning, employability, and intercultural competence. The project exemplifies the potential of learner-centred, digital education models to address modern societal and economic needs.

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