General

The Finnish School of Watchmaking The Finnish School of Watchmaking is a private vocational school, which is owned by Kellosepäntaidon Edistämissäätiö (The Trustfund for promoting Watchmaking Skills). The operation of the school is monitored by the National Board of Education and the school receives funding from the Ministry of Education to cover its expenses. The Finnish School of Watchmaking is located in Espoo, in Leppävaara. The School trains watchmakers and micromechanics. The watchmaker's degree aims at repair and sales duties in the watch business. The micromechanic degree aims at preparing the student for working in design, maintenance and demanding production duties in the electronics and instrument industries.

History of The Finnish School of Watchmaking The Finnish School of Watchmaking was founded in 1944 in Lahti. While the country still at war, the Finnish Watchmakers' Association was offered the power plant premises in Lahti for education purposes. The School operated in Lahti until 1959, at which time the Trust Fund bought a site in Tapiola, and backed by government aid, built a school and a hall of residence there. Until the 1970's, the school operated as a boarding school. In 1979, living in the dormitory was made voluntary, and in 1997, the student dormitory was given up completely. During its history, over 700 watchmakers have graduated from the school. They have primarily settled in different duties in watch and jewellery retail. Over half of those remaining in the field have at some point in their lives set up a watch shop. The rest of these graduates have settled in parallel fields which demand great precision skills. Finnish watchmakers have had no trouble in finding work abroad and many of them are currently working e.g. in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and in the United States. From the humble beginning of the Finnish School of Watchmaking starting in poor conditions, the School has been developed during the years into an active, international and respected institution, whose training has grown from basic training for watchmakers into training micromechanics as well and giving commercial training in the field. After moving from Tapiola to Leppävaara to a bigger and fully renovated building in the summer 2007 the school has better conditions for education. The former main library of Espoo was totally transformed to serve the needs of the Finnish School of Watchmaking.

Applying to the School and the Students Applications to the School are done via a nation wide, joint selection procedure. The number of applicants varies yearly. Teaching is only in Finnish and we don't have any courses in other languages.

Training The training lasts three years. Two thirds of the teaching consists of practical work and the rest is theoretical studies. Theory is divided into theory related to work and into general knowledge, for example languages, mathematics and subjects related to entrepreneurship.

Further Studies Graduates from The Finnish School of Watchmaking can continue their studies in the Wostep-Institute in Switzerland. The Institute is run by the Swiss watchmaking industry and every year it organizes 5-month courses. There are two levels of courses, and completion of the first course qualifies the student for the next. Many Finnish watchmakers have studied at Wostep.