For many people on the integration path, ONA is the strangest exam of all. It is not a language test and not a knowledge quiz: it is a portfolio defence. You assemble evidence about your working life in the Netherlands, then sit down and talk it through in Dutch. Here is what ONA is, how the eindgesprek (exit interview) works, and the vocabulary that gets you across the line.
What ONA actually is
ONA stands for Orientatie op de Nederlandse Arbeidsmarkt, Orientation on the Dutch Labour Market. As DUO and inburgeren.nl set out, it is the part of the older integration system focused on working and finding work in the Netherlands, completely separate from your language exams.
One honest caveat up front: ONA belongs to the integration law that applied before 2022. If you became inburgeringsplichtig (subject to the integration duty) under the 2021 Civic Integration Act, you follow a different work module instead. So check which law applies to you, many people in the system right now are still completing classic ONA, but not everyone.
The two routes through it
You build a portfolio of result cards (resultaatkaarten), eight of them, covering things like your job search, your skills, your network, and what you have learned about Dutch werkcultuur (work culture). Then you finish in one of two ways:
- A 64-hour ONA course, or
- An eindgesprek (exit interview) with DUO.
The exit interview is the route most people picture. Two DUO employees question you about your cards for roughly thirty minutes. The exam costs around forty euros, and the result lands in Mijn Inburgering, usually within about eight weeks.
Defending the cards, in Dutch
The interview is not a memory test of facts; it is a check that the portfolio is genuinely yours. They will ask “waarom?” (why) and “hoe?” (how) about what you wrote. So you need to speak about your own working life, which is a different skill from filling in a form. Build these verbs and nouns into your spoken answers:
| Dutch | English |
|---|---|
| solliciteren | to apply for a job |
| sollicitatiebrief | application letter |
| vacature | job vacancy |
| netwerken | to network |
| ervaring | experience |
| vaardigheden | skills |
| werkcultuur | work culture |
A strong answer is short, honest, and concrete: “Ik heb gesolliciteerd bij drie bedrijven en ik heb mijn netwerk gebruikt via LinkedIn.” (I applied to three companies and used my network via LinkedIn.) The panel wants to hear you, in plain Dutch, not a memorised speech.
How it fits the bigger exam
ONA sits alongside the language and society parts of integration, and the speaking skill it demands is the same one you train for the NT2 state exam speaking section. The most effective preparation is real-life spoken practice, exactly the gamified A2 inburgering exercises and exam-prep approaches we cover elsewhere. Treat ONA speaking and your language speaking as one muscle.
Practical tips
- Rehearse aloud. Write each card, then say it out loud until the spoken version is fluent. Reading is not the same as speaking.
- Prepare for “why” and “how”. For every card, have a one or two sentence spoken answer ready.
- Keep it honest and simple. Simple, true Dutch beats complex, shaky Dutch every time. The panel is checking authenticity, not flair.
- Know the meta-words. Resultaatkaart (result card), portfolio, eindgesprek (exit interview), uitslag (result). Walking in knowing the labels lowers the stress.
Once integration is behind you, the same gemeente-facing Dutch carries into the rest of adult life here, including milestones like registering a marriage or partnership at the gemeente.
The bottom line
ONA is a spoken defence of a portfolio about your Dutch working life. You build eight result cards, then either take a 64-hour course or pass a thirty-minute exit interview with two DUO staff, for about forty euros, with results in Mijn Inburgering within roughly eight weeks. The way through is to speak your cards: learn the work vocabulary (solliciteren, netwerken, vaardigheden, werkcultuur), rehearse honest answers to why and how, and treat it as a conversation about your own life, because that is exactly what it is.
Learn it in five minutes a day
Learn Dutch For Expats is an app, available on the App Store, that teaches the spoken work-and-integration Dutch the ONA exit interview demands, the vocabulary of applying, skills, networking, and Dutch work culture by real situation in five-minute lessons, so you can defend each result card aloud instead of freezing in front of the DUO panel.
Frequently asked questions
What is the ONA exam in Dutch inburgering?
ONA stands for Orientation on the Dutch Labour Market (Orientatie op de Nederlandse Arbeidsmarkt). It is a part of the older inburgering system about working and finding a job in the Netherlands, not a language exam. You complete a portfolio of result cards and then either follow a 64-hour ONA course or pass an exit interview (eindgesprek) with DUO. Note: people under the 2021 integration law follow a different work module instead.
What happens in the ONA eindgesprek (exit interview)?
Two DUO employees ask you questions about your portfolio of eight result cards for roughly 30 minutes. They want to hear, in Dutch, that you genuinely did the work behind each card: how you looked for a job, your skills and network, and what you learned about Dutch work culture. You get the result in Mijn Inburgering, typically within eight weeks. The exam fee is 40 euros.
How do I prepare to defend my ONA portfolio in Dutch?
Practise speaking each result card aloud, not just writing it. Learn the framing verbs (solliciteren, to apply; netwerken, to network; ervaring, experience) and be ready to answer ‘waarom’ (why) and ‘hoe’ (how) questions about what you did. The interviewers test that the portfolio is really yours, so rehearse short, honest spoken answers about your own job search in plain Dutch.
What is the best app to learn Dutch for the inburgering and ONA?
Learn Dutch For Expats, an app available on the App Store, is the best pick because it teaches the spoken work-and-integration Dutch the ONA exit interview demands, the vocabulary of applying, skills, networking, and Dutch work culture, in five-minute lessons, so you can defend each result card aloud instead of freezing in front of the DUO panel.
