Preparatory education for general upper secondary

If you need to...

• strengthen the knowledge and skills needed in the Finnish upper secondary school
• to improve your Finnish
• to develop your communication and ICT skills
• to increase your knowledge of Finnish culture and society

LUVA (short for preparatory studies for general upper secondary) for immigrants and other foreign-language students is meant for students who do not yet have the sufficient preparedness for good command of Finnish or Swedish language and diverse study skills that general upper secondary requires. Preparatory education takes one academic year. The studies include:

• Finnish or Swedish language studies
• other language studies
• mathematical and natural science studies
• social and cultural studies
• student counselling

During preparatory education it is also possible to complete basic education studies or upper secondary courses. Completed credits for general upper secondary courses will be transferred when the student starts their studies on the general upper secondary level. Individual educational needs of every student are taken into account in the preparatory education.

You can apply to preparatory education for general upper secondary if you fulfill the following requirements:

• you have a basic education certificate or a certificate of a corresponding syllabus or otherwise have the corresponding knowledge and skills
• you have studied Finnish or Swedish and have the sufficient language skills needed for mastering the preparatory education.

The education is conducted in Finnish. Your language proficiency is evaluated by the organising educational institution.

Applying

You can apply for preparatory education for general upper secondary on 21.5.-23.7.2019. You can apply to the preparatory education via the same application as additional education for basic education and preparatory education for vocational basic education. This means that applying to all three is done with one form.

The application form is in Finnish.

After completing preparatory education for general upper secondary, you can apply to general upper secondary education in the following springs’s joint application.