Are the IT industry's requirements for Swedish language skills excessive...

... or are they just a sign that this is an industry that demands high levels of customer understanding and social skills?

I give a talk to 70 study and career counselors and employment officers in Linköping. I talk about the IT and telecom industry's need for skills, where I talk about the content of my mapping of the area (pinfresh, will soon be available on the web, email in the meantime to fredrik.vonessen[@]almega.se). I'm asked if the industry hires foreign-born people and my answer is definitely yes... provided they speak good Swedish. A light giggle arises in the auditorium.

After the meeting, the CEO of Mjärdevi Science Park ("Linköpings Kista") comes and expresses his surprise at what I said about the Swedish language requirement. It was the first time he had heard this. With international customers, with English as the corporate language, and with Swedes generally speaking good Swedish, the IT competence itself, not the knowledge of Swedish, should be the key issue.

This may sound reasonable, but I can only echo what all member companies tell me - and which was also endorsed by Anders Englund, Attentec's CEO with whom I gave the talk - that Swedish is a must.

It is interesting that academia and the research community have one view of the (non-)need for Swedish skills, while those working in the industry have a completely different one. Regardless of which picture is correct (it weighs heavily in favor of the latter), all energy must be put into ensuring that all foreign-born people who want to work in Sweden learn good Swedish. Everyone has a responsibility here - the Employment Service, SFI and not least the IT companies themselves, to give those who know decent Swedish a chance to learn really good Swedish in a few months at work.