The course in Learning for newcomers aims to develop the skills of teachers in the reception and learning conditions for students who have just arrived in Sweden. Lund University Commissioned Education coordinates the course on behalf of the Swedish National Agency for Education, which has established a clear framework for the course's overall content. Johanna Karlsson has been involved since the planning of the course.

– Another teacher and I designed the course's overall content. LUCE handled the marketing and recruitment of students which is done in the form of teams from schools. Our working process together has been very organised.

Apart from getting the chance to teach in a more practical way, the collaboration with LUCE has opened new educational doors.

– I have greatly developed my teaching skills by being given the opportunity to work with distance learning. I have had participating teams from Lapland, and the setup of not having any physical meetings has facilitated this. LUCE staff have been helpful in developing a strategy for long-distance communication with participants, for example by producing films.

Johanna Karlsson considers the function of commissioned education to be something that benefits society. She explains that LUCE becomes a bridge by offering customised courses and programmes to organisations according to their identified needs. Learning for newcomers is an example of this.

– The subject field of learning for newcomers has always interested me, but there were no courses on the subject. It is worthwhile having a course that caters to a different kind of reality. It has given me the chance to get out into the schools and find new solutions for their situation. It is something completely different to what I usually do as a lecturer.

The immediate future for Johanna Karlsson is, however, not at Lund University, but on the other side of the Atlantic at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She does not believe this to be an obstacle for her to continue working with commissioned education, however.

– I will teach the distance course while I am at UCLA, at least during the first semester. I really want to continue working with the course on Learning for newcomers.