Finnish and Swedish in Helsinki
Local information
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Studying Finnish and Swedish
There are many opportunities to study Finnish and Swedish in Helsinki. You can apply to study the language at the University of Helsinki or improve your Finnish language skills at library language cafés. If you are a job seeker, you can study Finnish or Swedish in integration training (kotoutumiskoulutus).
Language courses
You can look in the Finnishcourses.fi service for a Finnish course that suits you, for example, in Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo or Kauniainen. There is a link on the front page of the service for Swedish courses. The service is available in Finnish, Swedish, English and Russian. The courses are open to all and often subject to a charge.
You usually need to enrol for a language course about 2–8 weeks before the beginning of the course. You can enrol for courses online. If you are unable to enrol online, contact the course organiser.
You can study Finnish and Swedish on adult education centre courses or during vocational studies, for example. Swedish Adult Education Centre Arbis offers many Swedish language courses. The Ilmonet service shows the course selection of all community colleges and adult education centres in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.
If you are a customer of the TE Office, you can also study Finnish or Swedish as part of integration training. Ask your TE Specialist about integration training.
Language cafés and discussion groups
In Helsinki, you can learn Finnish and meet new people at Helmet libraries’ language cafés (kielikahvila) and discussion groups. You can practise speaking Finnish there, even if you only know a little Finnish. Language cafés are free of charge and you do not need to register. You can ask for more information about language café, for example, at Central Library Oodi.
National Certificate of Language Proficiency
Helsinki provides the opportunity to obtain the National Certificate of Language Proficiency (YKI) in Finnish or Swedish. The website of the Finnish National Board of Education (Opetushallitus) features a search engine that you can use to check where and when you can obtain the certificate. You need to act quickly because Helsinki has many participants in the YKI certificate.
Finnish National Agency for Education
Find Finnish National Certificate of Language Proficiency tests (YKI)Link redirects to another websiteRead more about the YKI test and other language tests on the InfoFinland page: Official certificate of language proficiency.
Read more about study materials online and tips about language studies on the InfoFinland page: Finnish and Swedish.