Education in Helsinki

Helsinki has numerous city-owned and private day-care centres (päiväkoti). Finnish or Swedish is spoken in city-owned day-care centres. Most day-care centres are Finnish-speaking.

If you are applying for a position in a city-owned day-care centre, submit your application at least four months before the beginning of the care period. You can apply for a day-care placement from the city if your family has an address in Helsinki.

Apply for a place in early childhood education online in the Asti service. You need Finnish online banking credentials to use the electronic application form. In addition, your child must have a Finnish personal identity code.

If you cannot use the electronic application form, print out the application form from the city website. Fill in the application form and mail it to the address: 

Varhaiskasvatuksen palveluohjaus
Työpajankatu 8
PL 58300
00099 Helsingin kaupunki

Most playgrounds also accept application forms.

You can ask about applying for early childhood education from the service guidance for early childhood education and pre-primary education (varhaiskasvatuksen ja esiopetuksen palveluohjaus):

Email: varepalveluohjaus@hel.fi (Link opens default mail program)
Tel. 09 310 80488

There are also private daycare centres in Helsinki where English, Russian, German, French, Spanish or Estonian are spoken. In addition, there are two Islamic daycare centres in Helsinki.

If you are applying for a place for your child in a private day-care centre, contact the day-care centre of your choice directly.

Read more: Early childhood education.

Your child must attend pre-primary education at a municipal or private day-care centre. In Helsinki, a few schools also provide pre-primary education. Pre-primary education is free-of-charge and starts in August.

Apply for a pre-primary education place for your child in January of the year when your child turns 6 years old. Apply for the place through the city’s electronic services. To apply, you need online banking credentials and your child must have a Finnish personal identity code. If you cannot apply for a pre-primary education place through electronic services, you can fill in and print the application form from the city website or get a printed form from a city-owned day-care centre. Bring the filled-in form to your preferred day-care centre personally.

Remember to mark on the form if your child will need to continue in daycare in the afternoon, after the four-hour morning session of pre-primary education is finished. 

Read more on the organisation of pre-primary education in Finland on the InfoFinland page Pre-primary education. You can find more information and a list of day-care centres on the City of Helsinki website. You can also ask for more information from a day-care centre director.

There are many comprehensive schools (peruskoulu) in Helsinki. In addition to the city schools, private and state-owned schools are available. Studying in a private school may be subject to a fee.

In city schools, the language of instruction is Finnish or Swedish. In Helsinki, there are also private schools whose language of instruction is, for example, English, German, French or Russian.

Children must be enrolled in comprehensive school at the beginning of a year. You can register your child for school online or visit the school on the registration day. The registration day is specified on the website of the City of Helsinki.

If a pupil’s Finnish language skills are not good enough for comprehensive school studies in a Finnish-speaking school, he/she may be provided with preparatory education. This education prepares the child for studies in a comprehensive school. The preparatory education teaches Finnish language and comprehensive school subjects.

You can ask about comprehensive education and schools in Helsinki from the Daycare and Education Guidance service.

Read more about comprehensive school in Helsinki in the Introduction to school guide.

Read more: Basic education.

Children aged 6–16 who do not yet speak enough Finnish or Swedish can start preparatory education at school in class, even in the middle of the school year. In the preparatory class, they study Finnish or Swedish for a year and get to know a Finnish school.

After the school day, the City of Helsinki organises afternoon activities with adult presence for first and second-graders and pupils requiring special support. Afternoon activities include meaningful activities in a safe environment at or near the school. In afternoon activities, children can play and spend time with friends, go outdoors or make small excursions to the surrounding area. Afternoon activities are subject to a fee, which covers insurance and a snack for the children.

Children whose native language is not Finnish or Swedish may receive education in their native language. In Helsinki, native-language education is provided for immigrants in over 40 languages.

You can ask about native-language education from the Daycare and Education Guidance service.

If you have questions about the Finnish school system, early childhood education, playground or club activities, you can contact the Education Division’s advisory services. You can ask the advisory services about applying for early childhood education or school.

• Switchboard 09 310 8600, Mon–Fri 8:00–16:00
• Education guidance service: 09 310 44986, on weekdays at 10 am–12 noon and 1 pm–3 pm (service also in English)
• Day-care and school guidance for international families in Finnish and English by email and by booking an appointment: eduguidance@hel.fi (Link opens default mail program)

Helsinki Vocational College is the largest vocational institute (ammatillinen oppilaitos) in Finland, where you can study a variety of fields. In addition to this, Helsinki boasts other vocational institutes. Apply for vocational education through the joint application process.

Read more: Vocational education. 

There are many general upper secondary schools in Helsinki. Helsinki also boasts numerous schools where languages other than Finnish or Swedish are spoken. In addition to the daytime general upper secondary school for young people, Helsinki has three general upper secondary schools for adults (aikuislukio).

Read more: General upper secondary school.

If you would like to acquire more knowledge and skills before applying for general upper secondary school or vocational education and training, you can apply for preparatory education for programmes leading to an upper secondary qualification, i.e. TUVA. During TUVA education, you can improve your basic education grades and also improve your Finnish language skills.

In Helsinki, TUVA education is organised at several locations of the Helsinki Vocational College (Stadin ammattiopisto). You can find more information on applying for TUVA education on the website of the Helsinki Vocational College.

Ohjaamo

If you are under 30 years of age, you can get advice and guidance from the Ohjaamo service. If you do not have a job or a study place, the Ohjaamo personnel will help you. You can also ask about other matters, such as housing or personal finances.

Contact information:

Fredrikinkatu 48
tel.: 09 310 25861
email: ohjaamo@hel.fi (Link opens default mail program)

In Helsinki, you can complete higher education studies in a variety of fields. There are both universities and universities of applied sciences in Helsinki.

The majority of the higher education is provided in Finnish. However, education in English is available in nearly all institutes of higher education. There is one Swedish-language university and one Swedish-language university of applied sciences in Helsinki.

The contact information for the institutes of higher education can be found on the City of Helsinki website. Application instructions and more detailed information on study programmes are available on the websites of the institutes themselves.

Read more: Universities and Universities of applied sciences.

Comprehensive education for adults

Konepaja Upper Secondary School for Adults (Konepajan aikuislukio) has a study programme for over 17-year-old immigrants, which enables you to complete the entire comprehensive school curriculum or portions of it. More information is available on the website of the Konepaja Upper Secondary School.

Other upper secondary schools for adults also provide comprehensive education for adults. The contact information for the upper secondary schools for adults can be found on the City of Helsinki website.

Helsinki boasts a wealth of study opportunities that are available to everyone. These studies are usually subject to a fee.

You can complete higher education studies at the Open University or at the open universities of applied sciences. These studies are open for everyone. The Open University and the open universities of applied sciences offer plenty of courses in English, too.

The City of Helsinki has a Finnish-language adult education centre (työväenopisto) and Swedish-language adult education centre. At the adult education centres, you can study languages, crafts and music, for example. The selection is extremely varied. The majority of the education in adult education centres is provided in Finnish or Swedish. In addition, the adult education centres organise courses in English and Russian.

Adult Education Centre of the City of Helsinki
Customer service tel. 09 310 88610
E-mail: tyovaenopisto@edu.hel.fi (Link opens default mail program)

Swedish Adult Education Centre Arbis
Tel. 09 310 49494
E-mail: arbis@hel.fi (Link opens default mail program)

Read more: Studying as a hobby.