Swedish language in Finland

The Swedish spoken in Finland is called Finland Swedish (suomenruotsi). It is pronounced somewhat differently from the Swedish spoken in Sweden.

If you apply for Finnish citizenship, you need a certificate of sufficient proficiency in the Finnish or Swedish language. For more information, see the InfoFinland page Official certificate of language proficiency.

You can use Swedish with government authorities, such as Kela or the TE Office. When you register as a resident at the service location of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, inform the language in which you want to use services. You can also change the language later.

Municipalities in Finland can be either monolingual or bilingual. Most of the municipalities in Finland are Finnish-speaking. There are bilingual municipalities on the southern and western coasts. If your municipality of residence is bilingual, you can also use Swedish with municipal services, such as the health centre.

Swedish-language integration may be a good choice for you, if:

• You live in an area with many Swedish speakers.
• You have family members or relatives who speak Swedish.
• You already speak some Swedish.

Swedish language skills could be useful when you look for work. However, please note that most jobs require proficiency in Finnish. Even if you choose Swedish-language integration training, you should also study Finnish at some point.

In some municipalities, you can participate in Swedish-language integration training. If you cannot get into Swedish-language integration training, in some cases you can still get support for independent Swedish studies if it is agreed on in your integration or employment plan. Ask about Swedish-language integration when your preliminary assessment and integration plan is being prepared. According to law, you have the right to choose Finnish or Swedish as your integration language.

Read more about integration services on the InfoFinland page: Integration into Finland.

You can also study Swedish as labour market training, if you are a customer of the Employment and Economic Development Office. Ask for more information from your local Employment and Economic Development Office.

In Finland, the language of early childhood education, pre-primary education and comprehensive education is usually Finnish or Swedish. If you want your child to attend Swedish early childhood education, pre-primary education or comprehensive education, ask your municipality’s advisory services about the possibility.

Some municipalities organise preparatory education for comprehensive education for pupils whose language skills are not yet good enough for normal education. Ask your municipality whether they organise preparatory education in Swedish.

If the child’s native language is something other than Finnish or Swedish, the municipality may organise native language education in the child’s own native language. If the child attends a Swedish-language school, he or she can study Swedish as a second language.

Read more on the InfoFinland page The Finnish education system.

After comprehensive school, you can study at general upper secondary school or a vocational institute. There are Swedish-language vocational institutes schools and general upper secondary schools in Swedish-speaking municipalities, bilingual municipalities and some Finnish-speaking municipalities.

Some general upper secondary schools and vocational institutes organise preparatory education for programmes leading to an upper secondary qualification (TUVA). Preparatory education gives you knowledge and skills that you will need in further studies. You can also improve your language skills.

You can search for Swedish-language vocational and general upper secondary education and preparatory education for programmes leading to an upper secondary qualification in the Opintopolku.fi service.

Read more about preparatory education on the pages Vocational education and training and General upper secondary school.

There are Swedish-language universities and universities of applied sciences in Finland. There are also a few bilingual universities where you can study in Swedish.

You can search for Swedish-language higher education in the Opintopolku.fi service.

You can study Swedish at adult education centres, workers’ institutes, folk high schools and summer university courses. Ask your local education providers or the advisory services in your municipality about Swedish language studies. You can see the providers of Swedish language courses on the map at Kielibuusti.fi.

Information on Swedish language courses in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area is available at Finnishcourses.fi.

Read more about the different education providers at: Studying as a hobby.

Applications

You can learn Swedish language from applications that you can download onto your mobile phone or tablet. Search for Swedish language applications in your app store (such as Google Play or App Store) with search terms “learn Swedish”, “Swedish language”, “lär dig svenska” or “svenska”. Some of the applications are subject to a charge.

Exercises and courses online

You can find Swedish courses on various levels of difficulty online. You can do things like complete exercises or play games, study grammar and vocabulary and read texts online.