General upper secondary school as a learning environment

The objective of general upper secondary education is to promote students’ wellbeing and provide them with better support in their studies. In the school culture of general upper education, more emphasis is placed on the students’ participation, cooperation, togetherness, and diversity while also addressing their individual needs. Additionally, the student-centred nature and individualization of studies will be enhanced, improving study motivation and the meaningfulness of studies. 

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Aims and transversal competences

The general upper secondary education aims to support students in growing into good, balanced and enlightened individuals and active members of society. In addition to promoting the command of various subjects’ objectives and key content, general upper secondary education also develops transversal competences. There are six areas of competences: (1) >wellbeing competence, (2) interaction competence (3) multidisciplinary and creative competence (4) societal competence (5) ethical and environmental competence and (6) global and cultural competence. Transversal competences help the students apply in practice the knowledge and skills they acquire while studying the various subjects. These competences also lead the way to the knowledge and skills which enable the students to cope with change in an increasingly digital and complex world.  

Learning environments

A good learning environment supports not only interaction and working together but also independent study. In the design of diverse, safe, and welcoming learning environments, attention should be paid to accessibility. The students are engaged in developing their learning environments.

The obligations related to cooperation of those education providers responsible for organising general upper secondary education will be scaled up, especially for cooperation between general upper secondary schools and higher education institutes. Some of the studies must be organized in cooperation with one or more higher education institutes. 

In this way it will be ensured that each general upper secondary education student has the opportunity to gain experience of higher education studies. The instruction is organized to enable the students to improve their international competence as well as their working life skills and entrepreneurial competence.  

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