Oslo Commerce School ( Norw. ''Oslo Handelsgymnasium'') is a full-time public school in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, specialising in the teaching of financial and business management. The school was founded in 1875 as Christiania Commerce School ( Norw. ''Christiania Handelsgymnasium'') with the goal of enabling young people "who had settled on a career in commerce or other practical vocations" to receive "a complete theoretical and practical education in commercial subjects as well as a higher education in other subjects."Trekk fra Oslo Handelsgymnasiums historie
Oslo Kommune Utdanningsetaten. Retrieved 2010-12-28.

Growth and diversification

The first 32 students graduated in 1877. Until

Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

(''Norges Handelshøyskole'') in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

was established in 1936, Oslo Commerce School provided the highest level of commercial education available in Norway. The number of pupils has increased steadily since then, especially after a 1950 reform gave economics and commerce courses the same recognition as the traditional high school subjects, and provided the right for its graduates to study at universities and colleges. This avenue of entry to post-secondary studies became popular, and after a few years many traditional upper secondary schools began offering programs in economics and commerce as well. The first students for the new Arts and Sciences curriculum began studies in 1977; the first class graduated in 1980. When Frogner Upper Secondary School closed, 13 class groups studying commerce and office/clerical programs transferred to Oslo Commerce School; the remaining students transferred to Hartvig Nissen School. From the 2002–03 school year, the school has included programs in training for the

service sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

, for the

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, for transport and

logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

and for

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. In addition, the school caters to special-needs students and offers two preparatory class groups for minority-language students.

School library

The school library has approximately 9,000 books, including fiction and non-fiction, and subscribes to three newspapers and several journals. The library has sections for poetry and novels, as well as

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

s and foreign-language fiction in English, French, Spanish and German.Mer om biblioteket ved OHG
Oslo Kommune Utdanningsetaten. Retrieved 2010-12-29.

School locations

At its 1875 founding the school was located at Rosenkrantz-gaten 7. Later, before the present building at Parkveien 65 was completed in 1946, the school's pupils were housed at Munchsgaten 4. The original school had been used as a command center for the occupying Germans during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The Germans added a bunker, which is today used as a museum. The current building was designed by the architectural partners

Gudolf Blakstad Gudolf Blakstad (19 May 1893 – 22 November 1985) was a Norwegian architect. He was noted for his work in the transition between neo-classicism and functionalism in Norwegian architecture. Biography Blakstad was born in Gjerpen, Norway. He ...

and

Herman Munthe-Kaas Herman Munthe-Kaas (25 May 1890 – 5 May 1977) was a Norwegian architect. He was primarily known for his functionalist building designs. Biography Munthe-Kaas was born at Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of Marius William M ...

and was largely financed through private funds and donations.

Notes

{{Authority control Education in Oslo Business schools in Norway Secondary schools in Norway Educational institutions established in 1875 1875 establishments in Norway Oslo Municipality