Alternative organization of training in school and enterprise

It is possible to sign an in-service appprenticeship contract or training contract that contains exceptions from the ordinary scheme for the education and training where 

  • more of the training than that suggested by the curriculum takes place in the training establishment  
  • the education and training in school and enterprise takes place in a different order than stipulated in the curriculum. 

This means for example that you can begin as an apprentice right after finishing lower secondary school or after taking only Vg1 in school. If you have completed and passed any upper secondary education previously you can have this acredited in accordance with the guidelines in the regulations to the Education Act.

If your apprenticeship contract includes instruction in programme subjects from Vg1, Vg2 and, if relevant, Vg3 in school that the recognized trade is based on, you must pass a special examination before you can register to sit the craft or journeyman’s examination:

  •  In most trades, this examination is to test how far you have achieved the competence aims determined in the curriculum for training in the recognized trade in a training establishment.
  • In some recognized trades in the educational programmes for electrical engineering and computer technology and technological and industrial production, this examination is to test how far you have achieved the competence aims determined in the programme subjects from Vg1, Vg2 and, if relevant, Vg3 in school that the recognized trade is based on.

As a rule you must also pass the common core subjects making part of the distribution of subjects for Vg1 and Vg2 in vocational education programmes.  

Education in common core subjects and, if relevant, programme subjects, is usually organized in separate groups at an upper secondary school.You can also sit the examinations in common core subjects as an external candidate. There are exceptions from the requirement of passed common core subjects. Your school counsellor can give you more information.