Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Søknadsskjemaet spør om arbeidserfaring, utdanning og referanser fra tidligere sjefer. - The application form asks about work experience, education and references from previous bosses.

spørre om noe = to ask about something / to ask for information about something
- Søknadsskjemaet spør om arbeidserfaring = The application form asks about work experience.

Spør etter is used more for asking for / looking for a person or thing:

Han spurte etter deg = He asked for you (he was looking for you).

Here the form is asking for information about your background, so spør om is the natural choice.

Is it normal to say that a form “asks” something in Norwegian? It sounds strange in English.

Yes, this is completely normal in Norwegian. You can say:

Skjemaet spør om ... = The form asks about ...

In English we’d usually say “the form asks for / requires / requests”, but Norwegian happily uses spør for this kind of thing, even when the subject is not a person.

So the sentence is very natural Norwegian, even if it feels slightly odd when translated word-for-word into English.

What does arbeidserfaring mean, and is it one word or two?

Arbeidserfaring means “work experience”.

It is written as one compound word in Norwegian:

arbeid = work
erfaring = experience
arbeidserfaring = work experience

Norwegian tends to join such nouns into compounds more often than English does.

What’s the difference between utdanning and education in English? Are they used in the same way?

Utdanning is usually equivalent to education, but it most often refers to formal education / training, such as:

school education
university studies
vocational training

In a context like this sentence, utdanning typically means your educational background (degrees, schools, courses, etc.).

You wouldn’t usually use utdanning for informal learning or general “being educated” in the broad sense; it’s more concrete and formal than that.

What does referanser fra tidligere sjefer mean exactly?

It means “references from former bosses”.

Breakdown:

referanser = references (plural of referanse)
fra = from
tidligere = earlier / former / previous
sjefer = bosses (plural of sjef)

So:
referanser fra tidligere sjefer = references from (your) previous bosses.

Why is it sjefer and not sjeferne or sjefene?

sjef = boss (singular, indefinite)
sjefer = bosses (plural, indefinite)
sjefene = the bosses (plural, definite, Bokmål standard)

In this sentence, we’re talking about references from former bosses in general, not from the specific bosses that both speaker and listener already know. So the indefinite plural is used:

tidligere sjefer = former bosses

If you said tidligere sjefene, it would sound like you are referring to some specific, known group: “the previous bosses”.

What is the function of fra here? Could you explain the preposition?

Fra means from.

In this phrase:

referanser fra tidligere sjefer
you can see a structure like:
references from former bosses

It indicates the source: the references come from those bosses. This use of fra is very similar to from in English.

Why is everything in the present tense: spør? Could we use a different tense here?

Spør is the present tense of å spørre (to ask).

Present tense is used because we’re describing what the application form generally does or typically asks, not a one-time past event.

You could say, for example:

Søknadsskjemaet spurte om ... = The application form asked about ... (in a specific past situation)

But in instructions, descriptions, or general statements, Norwegian uses the present tense, like English:

The form asks about ...

Is the word order spør om arbeidserfaring, utdanning og referanser flexible, or does it have to be like this?

The word order here is quite natural but flexible. You can reorder the list:

spør om arbeidserfaring, referanser og utdanning
spør om utdanning, arbeidserfaring og referanser

All of these are grammatically correct. The original order is simply a stylistic choice.

What is not flexible is the core structure:

Søknadsskjemaet spør om + [things asked about]

That pattern needs to stay.

What’s the difference between søknad and søknadsskjema?

søknad = application (the actual application document or the act of applying)
skjema = form
søknadsskjema = application form (the form you fill out to make an application)

So you might:

fill out a søknadsskjema
to submit a søknad

How do I know that skjema is a neuter noun and therefore takes -et in the definite form?

You mostly have to learn the gender with each noun. In dictionaries, you’ll see:

et skjema (showing that it’s neuter)

Neuter nouns:

indefinite: et skjema
definite: skjemaet

There are some patterns, but skjema is a loanword and doesn’t follow a simple rule you can guess from the ending, so it’s best just to memorize it as et skjema.

Could you give a natural English translation of the whole sentence?

A very natural translation would be:

“The application form asks for information about work experience, education, and references from previous employers.”

More literal but still okay:

“The application form asks about work experience, education, and references from former bosses.”