Yhteiskuntaorientaatio: the civic orientation material the citizenship test will be built on
Vishwen Labs
Yhteiskuntaorientaatio, civic orientation, is the course new arrivals in Finland take as part of integration training, and its learning material is the base the government named for the citizenship test's official material. It is produced by the Finnish Refugee Council with the National Agency for Education, sized for about 70 hours of teaching, published free in several languages at yhteiskuntaorientaatio.fi, and openly licensed for reuse with attribution. Until Migri publishes the official material in autumn 2026, it is the closest thing to a syllabus that exists.
What the material is
Civic orientation was added to integration training so that people arriving in Finland learn how the society works in a language they understand. The material covers living in Finland from the first residence permit onwards: registration and the authorities, housing, money and banking, work and employee rights, taxes, Kela and the health system, family and children, education and libraries, democracy and elections, the law, rights and responsibilities, equality, culture and history. It is written for adults with little prior knowledge of Finland, in plain language, and delivered by trained instructors in the learners' own languages, with the Finnish terms alongside.
Why the government chose it as the base
The Ministry of the Interior said the citizenship test's learning material would be produced on the basis of the existing civic orientation material, and there are good reasons. It already exists, it is already public, it already covers the four areas the law names, and it was written for exactly the readers the test is for. The University of Helsinki's task is to turn it into a test syllabus in clear Finnish and to write questions on it, and Migri will publish the result on its own site. Reading the civic orientation material now is therefore not a guess at the syllabus; it is reading the source the syllabus is being written from.
What it covers that the test may not
Integration training has a wider purpose than a knowledge test. The material spends time on practical life, how to open a bank account, register with the health centre, find a flat, use Suomi.fi, because new arrivals need it. Migri's list of test topics is narrower: key legislation, fundamental and human rights, equality, and history and culture. Expect the official material to keep the structure and trim the practical detail, and weight your own reading accordingly: the chapters on rights, law, democracy, equality and history first, the chapters on everyday services second.
How the app is built on it
Kansalaisuuskoe's 45 lessons and 1,221 questions are written from the civic orientation material and from InfoFinland, the multilingual public information service, and each question cites that source. The 13 chapters follow the material's order, from moving to Finland and citizenship through history, values, democracy, law, work, tax, welfare, education, everyday life, culture and the national languages. The material's open licence allows this with attribution, and the app credits it. When Migri publishes the official material, the app will be revised against it, and its mock format will change to Migri's.
How to use the material now
Read it in your own language first, then in Finnish, and keep a list of the Finnish terms for rights, institutions and duties. Where the material describes a practical step, make sure you understand the rule behind it, because a test question is more likely to ask why municipalities collect tax than how to log in to a service. Then practise questions. And bookmark Migri's page on the 2027 amendments: the official material will appear there, and comparing it against what you have already read is a far smaller task than reading it cold.
Kansalaisuuskoe is an independent study aid and is not affiliated with the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) or any other Finnish authority. Migri will publish the official learning material for the citizenship test before the first test in March 2027, and the test's questions will be based on it; the app's lessons and questions are its own, written from the civic orientation and InfoFinland material that the official material will draw on.
Questions people also ask
Is the civic orientation material the official Finnish citizenship test material?
Not yet. The official material will be published by Migri before the first test, and the government has said it will be developed from the civic orientation material. Until then the civic orientation material is the base the official material is being written from, and the best available preparation.
Where can I read the yhteiskuntaorientaatio material?
At yhteiskuntaorientaatio.fi, free, in several languages including Finnish, English and Swedish, produced by the Finnish Refugee Council with the National Agency for Education. It is the material used in integration training courses across Finland.
