In 2019, the new position "preschool assistant" was established within the municipality's preschools.

- We wanted to clarify the assignment for staff at the preschool who have no education, says Kristina Öhrn.

Since the position was established, principals of preschools have alerted about lack of language skills among staff, she states:

- There is a need to review how well you know the Swedish language.

The principals assess

Are only staff with a different ethnic background tested?

- The principals assess who is to be tested.

We start with permanent staff, but that can change later.

We do not strive to judge anyone, but we want to increase the competence of our children in the end, says Kristina Öhrn.

The survey will run throughout the autumn.

The test has been designed by the municipality and consists of two oral parts and a written part.

The staff must read out an information text and a weekly letter and then report it back to the principal.

They will then send an email to the principal where they have answered questions about themselves.

- Our main focus is to make a competence development effort.

We want to strengthen goal fulfillment, says Thomas Lindberg, Head of Administration at the Children and Education Administration.

Staff can be relocated

Can staff lose their jobs if the language deficiencies are judged to be too great?

- It can be about having to review what other tasks you can perform within the municipality, if you judge that the effort has not worked, says Thomas Lindberg.

So you can be relocated?

- That's the idea here.

In the clip above, you will hear Lindesberg municipality talk about the language tests.