Demonstrating sufficient language proficiency

Social welfare and health care professionals must have sufficient oral and written language proficiency to allow them to perform their duties. Employers are required to evaluate whether a person has sufficient language proficiency in order to perform their duties.

The specific application instructions for each profession explain when you need to demonstrate your language proficiency to Valvira.

Demonstrating language proficiency by a language test, a certificate or a maturity test

Finland’s official languages are Finnish and Swedish. You must demonstrate language proficiency in either Finnish or Swedish. You can demonstrate sufficient language proficiency in one of the following ways:

• The Civil Service Language Certificate or the National Certificate of Language Proficiency (YKI). For the Civil Service Language Proficiency Certificate, the requirement is at least ‘Satisfactory skills’ in all skills areas; for the National Certificate of Language Proficiency, the requirement is at least the intermediate level test (levels 3–4) with a score of at least 3 in all skills areas in the same test. 
• A leaving certificate from a Finnish comprehensive school. The certificate must show a passing grade for Finnish or Swedish as mother tongue or second language.
• A leaving certificate from a Finnish upper secondary school, or a Finnish matriculation examination certificate, showing a passing grade for Finnish or Swedish as mother tongue or second language.
• A certificate showing that you have completed the upper secondary school syllabus in the subject of Finnish or Swedish as mother tongue or second language.
• A certificate showing that you have completed a vocational qualification in Finnish or Swedish. 
• A certificate showing that you have completed studies in Finnish for civil servants or Swedish for civil servants at an academic university or a university of applied sciences.
• A maturity test taken in Finnish or Swedish for a degree or qualification completed at an academic university or a university of applied sciences.

Demonstrating language proficiency with an employer statement

You may also demonstrate your language proficiency with a statement from your employer. Such a statement must include the following details:

• place of employment and date(s) of employment 
• job duties 
• evaluation of written and spoken language proficiency, reading comprehension and speech comprehension 

The person issuing the statement must be someone who has been able to evaluate your language proficiency in practice. Valvira will evaluate such statements on a case-by-case basis.