Two or several municipalities which together provide education in a national programme constitute a co-operation region for that programme. The national programmes and the national and local branches are to be built up from courses within different areas. A subject syllabus can consist of a number of short courses both within the programme selected as well as from other programmes. Course goals are set out in syllabi which are common to upper secondary schools and municipal adult 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 courses time is set aside for local supplements or practical work connected with subjects, as well as for individual choice to allow pupils to choose additional subjects and courses within the national programmes. The timetables, which are now attached to the Education Act, express in units of 60 minutes the minimum guaranteed teacher or supervisor-led instruction time. This is 2.400 hours for the vocationally oriented programmes and 2.180 hours for academically oriented programmes, over the three years. The local education authority of school decides when different subjects are to be studied and how long the lessons should be. The school will be responsible for procuring such training opportunities and for supervising pupils during this training.