Student welfare

The aim of student welfare in general upper secondary schools is to promote the students’ learning, health, and wellbeing, and to take care of the wellbeing of the school community as well as the health and safety of the learning environment. Student welfare is realised as both communal and individual welfare. 

Student welfare in general upper secondary school comprises student welfare in accordance with the curriculum approved by the education provider as well as student welfare services, which include a psychologist and a school social worker services along with student health care services. The municipality in which the school is located is responsible for the organisation of student welfare services. The students are entitled to free student welfare necessary for participation in education, excluding medical services for students over 18 years of age. 

Guidance counselling

The purpose of guidance counselling is to support the student in their studies during general upper secondary school and ensure that the student is equipped with skills and knowledge needed when continuing to further studies or working life.Guidance counselling refers to actions through which the students reinforce their agency, functional capacity, learning-to-learn skills, and career planning skills. In this context, agency means the students’ ability to build their future and make decisions related to their studies and careers. Guidance counselling reinforces the students’ confidence in their possibilities of achieving the goals they set and trust in their ability to cope with change. Guidance counselling builds bridges from general upper secondary school to society and the world of work. It promotes fairness, equity, equality, and participation as well as prevents exclusion from education and the world of work. In general upper secondary, compulsory credits for guidance counselling are 4 cr.