How can language training during working hours strengthen both communicative competence and labour-market integration among foreign-born workers? A new research project at Delmi examines the effects of a workplace-based language intervention in the Kronoberg region.
Delmi has launched a new research project examining the effects of workplace-based language development for foreign-born employees. The project Language at and for Work – effects of the ESF+ Handslaget Kronoberg initiative on language development and perceived communicative competence in Swedish as a second language investigates the extent to which language training during working hours can enhance both actual and perceived communicative competence in Swedish.
The study is grounded in the observation that traditional Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) programmes do not always meet employers’ needs, and that there is a lack of evidence-based knowledge on how workplace language learning functions in practice. Using a quantitative and longitudinal research design, participants in the ESF+ Handslaget Kronoberg initiative are compared with a control group, focusing on fluency, comprehensibility, and self-assessed communicative competence.
The project is carried out in cooperation with eight municipalities in the Kronoberg region and includes employees primarily in the industrial sector and in health and social care. The findings are expected to contribute new knowledge on how workplace-based language initiatives can support labour-market integration and skills supply.
The report is authored by Fanny Forsberg Lundell, Professor of French at Stockholm University and part-time researcher at Ratio, and Klara Arvidsson, researcher at the Institute for Language and Folklore (Isof). The report is scheduled for publication at the end of 2026.
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