Mohamed Hassan Dirige, teacher in Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya. Photo: Oxfam. Flickr. Some rights reserved.How can a migrant arriving in a new culture with a different language, or a refugee just granted asylum, preserve a professional identity? How can a migrant or refugee recipient society capture and employ the potential, the skills and tremendous human resources that newcomers bring?
Sfx, ‘Swedish for professionals’, is an ongoing attempt to provide possible and practical answers to just such questions. In Stockholm county, ten educational programs combining Swedish language studies with vocational courses, fieldwork, study visits etc. are designed to show, teach and guide newcomers to how their profession is organized and how their work field functions in Sweden.
The programs have been running for some 15 years and every year over 1000 students are enrolled. The programs include academic as well as non-academic professions. All the programs are organized and offered by public local adult education providers. Sfx relies on cooperation between the municipalities and are promoted and coordinated at the regional level where both the County Administrative Board of Stockholm and the Stockholm County Association of Local Authorities have important roles to play.
