Ravintolakoulu Perho Culinary school

The education provider
Helsinki Culinary School Perho is a pioneer in vocational skills in Finland and a vocational education institution renowned for its high quality operations in Europe. The operations of the Helsinki Culinary School Perho are based on the values of partnership, sense of community and responsibility.

Helsinki Culinary School offers a vocational qualification in the hotel, restaurant and catering industry (120 credits). The teaching restaurant Perho, situated on the Mechelininkatu street, offers an on-the-job learning placement for the students of Helsinki Culinary School Perho. The students do on-the-job learning also in many other Finnish and European restaurants and hotels. Helsinki Culinary School Perho enjoys good international co-operative networks. Helsinki Culinary School Perho is a part of the Haaga Group.


Certified quality and feedback
The Perho Quality model for operations ensures that the results of our operations maintain their high quality and keep growing in a positive direction. Through our joint efforts, we have achieved the Southern Finland Province Governor’s Quality Prize in 1999 and two quality prizes awarded by the Ministry of Education in 2001 and 2004. The Finnish Gastronomic Society awarded us with a recognition for pioneering spirit in 2010.

In developing our operations we use feedback gathered from our students, staff and co-operative partners. Our skilled staff is the reason behind Perho’s success. Perho has 63 permanent teachers and other supporting staff. There are 490 students.

At Helsinki Culinary School Perho one can take a vocational qualification in the hotel, restaurant and catering industry or a double qualification which combines the cook’s vocational qualification with the general upper secondary school syllabus for adults and possible matriculation examination. Students who have graduated in the hotel and catering industry have found employment easily both in Finland and abroad. Helsinki Culinary School Perho has 490 students.

The school was founded in 1935. It was the first, and for some time the only, hotel and restaurant school in Finland. The school building, situated in Perhonkatu street, was completed in 1957. The facilities have been renovated in the years 2007–2008. The school is owned by the Haaga Institute Foundation.

The school is in the Töölö area of Helsinki and easily accessible by public transport. The tram number 8 stops practically by the school’s door. The Kamppi metro station is at a few minutes’ walking distance from Perhonkatu 11.

The students of Helsinki Culinary School Perho get a good start for their studies in the field. The students find our teachers to be skilled and inspiring. The group supervisors familiarise the students to the school and also to many studying practices. In addition to the group supervisors, there is an entire counselling staff at Perho to support the students. The students can use the services of the student counsellor, the school social worker and the school nurse.

There is an IT lab and a library for the students. The student and staff restaurant Herkku serves delicious food. The food is prepared of partly organic high quality raw materials in the school’s own teaching restaurant. The customers of Herkku have been very satisfied.

On-the-job learning offers our students opportunities to learn the work tasks of the field by doing practical work. The annual Recruiting Day gives the students a chance to get to know employers operating in the hotel and restaurant industry in the Helsinki metropolitan area.

There are more than a hundred on-the-job learning placements on offer, which means that there is a suitable and interesting placement for every student. Students can do on-the-job learning also abroad, or stay for longer periods as exchange students. Perho has co-operative partner schools for example in France and in England.

Graduation tastes sweet! The majority of the Perho students complete their studies within the prescribed time limit and the drop-out rate is very small. The spring term ends with a celebration at the Aalto University School of Business where the graduates receive their diplomas and some receive also scholarships from the school’s scholarship fund. Also our students’ musical gifts are often presented at the celebration.

You have chosen an international field where there will always be work available. This qualification provides you with a profession. The studies are working life oriented: a large part of the studies are taken in the form of on-the-job learning in hotels and restaurants of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The basis for succeeding in one´s studies is a positive attitude and motivation, and the ability to set clear goals for oneself. At HCSP you are responsible for your own studies.



As a Perho student You

will follow the rules of good conduct.
will not use bad language.
will behave respectfully towards the teachers, other staff members, your fellow students and customers.
will arrive in class on time.
will notify the teacher or group supervisor if you are late or absent from class (primarily via the Wilma system). on the on-the-job learning periods, notify the workplace supervisor of being late or absent by telephone.
will keep my cellphone voiceless or turned off, and will not use it in class without the teacher´s permisson.
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