“Strengthen our efforts”: a strategy for language stimulation of migrants

Some 5 000 adults are at any one time enrolled in language tuition programs. The city provides free tuition to refugees and adults in family with Norwegian citizens or refugees. The free tuition programs are – on certain conditions - extended to unemployed immigrants in general, in need of help from employment and welfare agencies to get a job. Refugees are enrolled in two-year introductory programs, which besides language training consist of periods of in-work training and mentorship and an introductory allowance.

The adult education service adopted in 2008 a three year €10m strategy named “Strengthening our efforts” consisting of 20 measures, amongst others tuition courses that can be combined with having a job and/or taking secondary and higher education. In recent years the city has adopted a strategy of language stimulation which target children in kindergartens and primary schools. The aim is that no children shall enter schools without a basic knowledge of Norwegian and no pupils leave school without a mastery of the language. The strategy consists (among other measures) of subsidized kindergarten fees, language tests at health clinics, combined mother-child tuition classes and educational programs in kindergartens.