Services

Teaching and education

Basic education

There are 15 schools offering basic education in Mikkeli. For each school, a certain area has been defined, according to which the student’s so-called neighbourhood school is determined.

Mikkeli shall assign the child of compulsory school age a place of study in the so-called neighbourhood school. This does not, however, necessarily mean the school closest to the student’s home. All children starting school will receive a letter from the City indicating the neighbourhood school. The guardian shall enrol the child to first grade in the January of the first year of school.

Children of compulsory school age may also apply to other schools than the one assigned by the City. In such cases, the guardian of the child shall submit the application to the principal of the school in question, and the City will neither arrange nor pay for transport to the school.

The guardians of children starting school at another grade or moving to Mikkeli in the middle of the school year shall primarily contact the principal of the neighbourhood school.

General upper secondary education

The general upper secondary schools in Mikkeli are Mikkelin lukio, distance general upper secondary school, general upper secondary school for adults, general upper secondary school for adults by Otavan Opisto and the online general upper secondary school Nettilukio.

The application period to the general upper secondary schools is in February to March through the national joint application system. Students of general upper secondary schools moving to Mikkeli from another municipality in the middle of the school year may apply to a place of study from the principal of the desired general upper secondary school.

Vocational education and training and higher education

Esedu, the South Savo Vocational College, offers vocational education and training in Mikkeli. www.esedu.fi

Higher education is offered by the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences Xamk, Mikkeli University Consortium and Mikkelin kesäyliopisto (Mikkeli Summer University).

Other educational institutions

The Community College of Mikkeli provides voluntary further education and leisure activities.

The Mikkeli Music Institute organises music studies with a wide selection of instruments for children and young people.

Valteri School Mikael is part of the national Valteri Centre for Learning and Consulting and serves students who need support as well as their families and professional staff.

Otava Folk High School

The Otava Folk High School is a city-owned company, with online pedagogy as its key competence. The education offering consists of online comprehensive and online upper secondary schools, online university-level subject studies, general upper secondary school for adults, programmes for students with immigrant backgrounds, and preparatory programmes lasting one school year. In addition, Otava Folk High School continuously offers various summer courses and short courses in, for instance, music, information technology, gaming, sustainable development and wellbeing. Otava Folk High School also provides ICT and online pedagogy training to teachers.

www.otavanopisto.fi