When a teenager has completed their compulsory education, they are entitled to continue into gymnasium if they have passed their core subjects of Swedish, Maths and English. Virtually all pupils who apply are accepted meaning nearly 95% continues to this level. Gymnasium courses vary enormously from vocational courses such as agriculture and forestry to academic ones leading through to university study. All are three year courses.

The size of gymnasiums varies – the smallest have around 300 pupils, the largest up to 1500. Most courses are organised by the kommun (the municipality) but some courses are arranged by the landsting (the regional authority) and some – for example, physical education – are arranged at national level. This means every gymnasium is different – a different size, different range of courses, run by different authorise. In Stockholm alone, you can find gymnasiums specialising in IT, international studies, music, handicrafts, ballet, art, technical skills, transport – the list goes on – as well as numerous generalist gymnasium.

As with compulsory education, pupils may specialise but they still have to devote some time to general education. Swedish, Maths and English are all studied for more than 100 hours over the three year programme with other subjects also in the mix. In vocationally orientated courses, 15% of a pupil’s time will be spent ‘on the job’ in a place of work.

Find an initial list of your local gymnasium from Gulasidorna by searching ‘Gymnasium’ (on-line) or skolor (in the paper version but you will have to trawl through all different schools). If you live in an area where there are a variety of gymnasium to choose between, you will probably find they hold open days for pupils in year 9 of grundskolan. This is the perfect opportunity to find out more about the school and the courses they run. Some have their own websites (in Swedish) which can help narrow down the search. For Stockholmers, there is also a fair (www.gymnasiemassan.nu) held annually at which most of the local schools will represent themselves to help in cutting to the chase.