Decisions on local courses are made by the school organiser. The timetables for national programmes, which are attached to the Education Act, express in units of 60 minutes the teacher or supervisor-led instruction time which is normally aimed for. The teaching-time may however vary according to the needs of the pupils. The teaching time is 2,150 hours for the arts, social science and natural science programmes and 2,370 hours for the other programmes, over the three years. The local education authority or school decides when different subjects are to be studied and how long the lessons should be.
All national programmes contain eight core subjects.
They make up approximately one third of the total period of upper secondary education. In addition to the core subjects pupils take subjects which are specific to their programme. All pupils are also to carry out a project during their course of studies. In all programmes time is provided for local supplements, as well as for individual options to allow pupils to choose additional subjects and courses within the national programmes. In the 14 vocational programmes at least 15 weeks of the pupils' total time should be spent on training at a work place.