Education Iceland has long been one of the world's most literate countries. Education is compulsory for ten years, with over 25 percent of the work-force holding university degrees. Many have studied abroad, mostly in Europe or North America. English and a Scandinavian language are part of the basic education. Most people entering further education add a third foreign language, usually German or French.
Communication is therefore very easy at general, business and technical levels.
This has also meant that it is unnecessary to translate software into Icelandic, even though it is often done for marketing purposes. As a part of the curriculum, all schools include some computer education, and advanced courses are available at various levels. Several hundred students have graduated from the University of Iceland with a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science, and a Master's Degree will become available in the fall of 1998. Computer skills also feature heavily in a number of other university majors. Other colleges offer software-related studies as well and have qualified hundreds of programmers.