Learning Swedish alongside your career

It depends on the job. Plenty of research groups, tech companies and international teams work in English day to day, and many employers expect you to pick up Swedish once you are in the job rather than before you start. Check each ad: language requirements are usually stated, and you can browse open positions to see how often English is enough in your field.

Swedish becomes a hard requirement in some places:

• Licensed health professions. Socialstyrelsen requires proof of Swedish before it issues a licence to people trained outside the EU/EEA.
• Teaching and patient- or client-facing roles, where the work itself happens in Swedish.
• Public employment support for graduates. Arbetsförmedlingen's academic fast track expects you to have finished SFI course D or have equivalent Swedish.

Even where it is not required, Swedish makes meetings, admin and the social side of work much easier. So start early, even if your first job runs in English: the sooner you begin, the sooner you feel at home in Swedish society as well as at work.

Classes alone rarely do it. Most people learn faster when they use the language alongside something else, such as a job, a work placement, a hobby or volunteering, so treat your course as one part of a mix rather than the whole plan.

SFI is the municipality's basic Swedish course. It teaches speaking, reading and writing for everyday life and work, plus how Swedish society works. It costs nothing.

Who can study. From 1 July of the year you turn 16, you are entitled to SFI if you live in Sweden and lack basic Swedish. Being in the Swedish Population Register is the usual way to count as living here, but not the only one. Skolverket explains that people whose right to education here follows from EU law, the EEA Agreement or the free-movement agreement with Switzerland also count as residents without being registered. In practice, an EU/EEA or Swiss citizen who has moved here to work can qualify before or without registration, as long as the other conditions are met. You do not need a personal identity number to start.

The reason you moved does not matter, so researchers, doctoral students, other professionals and family members who live here qualify on the same terms. Two groups are left out: people still waiting for an asylum decision or staying without a permit (see working during asylum), and people whose Danish or Norwegian is good enough that SFI is not needed.

How it is built. Until the end of 2026 there are four courses, A to D, and three study paths. Path 3 covers courses C and D and is aimed at people who are used to studying, which usually fits university graduates. Skolverket has adopted new SFI course plans for teaching that starts from 1 January 2027, so the structure changes then; your school will tell you how it affects you. When you start, the school assesses your Swedish, places you at the right level and writes an individual study plan with you, including your goals and the date you were first admitted.

Fitting it around work. You are entitled to an average of at least 15 hours of teaching a week, and you can ask for fewer hours if you work. You can study full time or part time and combine SFI with a job, a work placement or other studies. The school should offer times that suit you, and if you are employed it should talk to your employer, and to the local union where a collective agreement applies, about how your studies fit around your work.

How to apply. Contact the municipality where you live; most have an SFI page on their website, and SKR's list of municipalities links to every one. The municipality should let you start within three months unless there are special reasons. If you have a special reason to study elsewhere, such as working in another municipality, you can ask to take SFI there instead.

New SFI rules took effect on 1 January 2026:

The clock starts on the day you are admitted and keeps running whether or not you attend, so a long pause still uses up your time.

You can ask for more time if you have special circumstances, such as sick leave, parental leave, a disability, or a break to work or study elsewhere. Ask your SFI teacher or the municipality before your three years run out. Each extension covers at most six months, and extensions can add up to three more years in total. If the municipality says no, you can appeal to the national appeals board for schools (Skolväsendets överklagandenämnd).

Watch your attendance too. If you are away for more than three weeks in a row without being ill or having approved leave, you count as having left the course, and you only get a place again if there are special reasons. Skolverket's page on the right to SFI has the full rules.

For a busy professional, the practical advice is simple: once you enrol, plan to keep going.

After SFI, municipal adult education (Komvux) offers Swedish as a second language. A study and careers counsellor there can help you choose a level.

If you need to prove university-level Swedish, Tisus (Test in Swedish for University Studies) is the qualifying test for academic studies, run by Stockholm University. It has reading, writing and speaking parts and is held twice a year, in spring and autumn, in several Swedish cities and abroad. There is a registration fee and a limited number of seats.

For health professionals, Socialstyrelsen accepts, among other options, a pass in Swedish 3 or Swedish as a second language 3 at Komvux, Swedish at CEFR level C1, or the Swedish requirement for university entry. A healthcare employer can also assess your Swedish on a form. Check the steps for your profession on Socialstyrelsen's licence site.

At universities. Some universities run Swedish courses for their own international staff. Uppsala University, for example, offers free "Swedish for Academics" courses to researchers, lecturers and doctoral students, taught in English, with limited places. Ask HR or your department what your employer offers.

Occupational Swedish (yrkessvenska). If you are registered as a job seeker with Arbetsförmedlingen and know which occupation you are aiming for, you may get Swedish teaching built around that field: the words, conversations and paperwork the work itself involves. It is meant to get you ready for a vocational programme, a work placement or a job, and it can be combined with SFI or a placement. Arbetsförmedlingen decides whether you can take part.

Programmes for graduates. Arbetsförmedlingen's academic fast track includes optional academic Swedish, and some of its university courses, such as those for nurses and energy engineers, start with it. See after your residence permit for who can join.

Between classes, the official Information Sverige site gathers free tools: the Hej svenska app for words, phrases and grammar, short videos on everyday terms, pronunciation drills, dictionaries, and news written in easy Swedish.

Many of these tools work just as well with a partner, flatmate or friend: quizzing each other is more fun than drilling alone, and you tend to remember more.

Speaking is where most professionals get stuck, so find people to talk to. Municipalities and associations run language cafés, and some can put you in touch with a Swedish speaker who becomes your language friend (språkvän) or refugee guide (flyktingguide); Arbetsförmedlingen's page on learning Swedish points to these options. At work, ask colleagues to switch to Swedish for lunch or one meeting a week. Small, regular use beats occasional cramming.