What skills do Nordic countries want someone to have to let them in?

The countries don’t give a damn. There’s no list of skills that there’s a shortage of. People are not going to be let in just due to having a specific skill.

What matters is the companies. You need to have a skill that some specific company needs, and that they can’t find inside the EU/EEC.

In Sweden, this is a list of professions where there is a shortage projected for 2025. Note that this is a projection, which means “guesswork by some expert or other”, and that it’s only valid for next year. All jobs marked with * also require good knowledge of Swedish; for the others, it might be negotiable.

University level degrees:

Midwives* Engineers (M. Sc. or higher) Pre-school teachers* Nurses* Doctors* (but training in Swedish might be provided) Teachers* Software and system developers Specialist nurses* Special needs teachers* System analysts and IT architects

Vocational degrees:

Bus and truck drivers* Electricians Cooks Machine operators in metal works* Vehicle mechanics* Welders Carpenters Machine repair* Assistant nurses* HVAC fitters*