City of Espoo: Finnish language assessment as a digital service
In Espoo’s employment services, Finnish language skills are made visible with an AI-assisted self-assessment tool (KIT) built by Reactored. The journey began with a 2024 digital pilot and has grown into a partnership aiming for 10,000 assessments a year. Espoo’s KIT is based on Reactored’s SIGNAL language assessment.
A comparable CEFR level for every client.
Results are based on AI analysis and predefined measurement algorithms.
Adaptive test
Task difficulty adapts to the answers.
PIN login, no installations
Works in the browser and on mobile. Data stored in the EU.
Instant results
Skill-level results, PDF and CSV export.
From pilot to production use in spring 2026.
use the KIT tool in client work.
Target: 10,000 assessments a year.
Language assessment needed a scalable format
Espoo has more than 12,000 non-native jobseekers — and for most of them, information on their Finnish language level is missing. Without it, service guidance is guesswork: personal coaches assess language skills themselves alongside their work, and official language examinations are too expensive and slow for wide use.
The city’s goal is ambitious: up-to-date language information for almost every jobseeker. It is a precondition for people being guided to the right training, the right services and job opportunities that suit their language level — instead of waiting in a queue for an assessment.
non-native jobseekers in Espoo
From pilot to partnership
Digiagenda pilot 2024
The collaboration started in Espoo’s Digiagenda pilot programme at the beginning of 2024. Versions of the test were trialled at 20 sessions during the year, with feedback from several hundred end users, jobseekers and students of Finnish.
Feedback guided development
The result has to be usable immediately, and the test has to encourage participants at every level. Based on these lessons, the tool was developed for production use in employment services.
Independent assessment on own device
The client receives a link and takes the assessment independently, anytime and anywhere. The adaptive assessment measures speaking, writing, reading and listening in about 40 minutes (CEFR A1–C1).
The collaboration is only beginning
Espoo moved to the production version of SIGNAL in spring 2026. Currently around 150 employment services specialists use it in their client work. The pilot has led to a four-year cooperation agreement that aims to scale the volume to around 10,000 assessments a year — so that language information will in future be available for almost every jobseeker in Espoo.
specialists use it in client work
assessments / year — target
cooperation agreement
pilot sessions in 2024
— Olga Silfver, City of Espoo (espoo.fi, 10/2024; translated from Finnish)
Sources: espoo.fi — news item “Digikokeilussa kehitettiin työllistymistä edistävä kielitaitotesti” (9 Oct 2024) and the service page “Suomen kielitaidon itsearviointityökalu Espoon työllisyyspalveluissa” (in Finnish).
Language assessment for municipalities
See how SIGNAL works for municipalities and employment areas: use cases, the Integration Act, packages and procurement.
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