A study investigated the foreign language needs of employees in Finland's Ministry of the Interior as a basis for developing a language training policy. Both individual employees and department heads were surveyed about perceived language training needs. Results suggest that foreign language proficiency is very important to the ministry's functioning, with the need for language skills increasing in the future. The most important languages were found to be Swedish, English, and German, with French, Russian, Norwegian, and Danish also mentioned as needed. The language proficiency of personnel was found to be insufficient, with the greatest amount of training needed in Swedish and English oral proficiency. The employees felt they needed a higher level of language proficiency for the performance of their work than the department heads felt was required. The findings suggest that self-assessment may give more realistic information about language training needs than official assessments. (Author/MSE)