Others are more practically orientated, training students for jobs such as artisans or clerks through a combination of instruction in vocational schools and apprenticeship.
After the Reformation's official implementation in 1536, the schools were taken over by the Crown; their primary purpose remained preparing students for theological studies, only now it was for the benefit of the Protestant Church.
This educational base remained nearly unchanged until 1809, when the old Clergyman's School was transformed, in accordance with the spirit of the time, into a humanistic Civil Servant's School, the purpose of which was to "foster true humanity" through immersion in the ancient Greek and Latin cultures combined with some teaching of natural science and modern languages.
According to the latest reform, the Gymnasium still offers three years of general upper secondary education in two lines.
The Higher Preparatory Examination (HF) was introduced in 1967 in a political climate that was characterised by a desire to extend educational possibilities to new groups in society.
Originally, it was the idea to create a two-year course aimed specifically at prospective candidates for teacher training.
But from the start, the HF also appealed to young people who for social or personal reasons had not followed the straight route via the Gymnasium to higher education.
The Higher Commercial Examination Programme (HHX) started in 1888 on a private initiative at Niels Brock's Business College in Copenhagen with a structure, which can mostly be found in the course today.
It was not until 1972, that the HHX was given the status of a university entrance examination in connection with a revision of the content, along with the introduction of more rigorous admission requirements.
On the same occasion, the HTX-examination was granted the status of a university entrance examination, and the graduates were now in principle placed on an equal footing with those of the Gymnasium, the HF and the HHX programmes as far as access to higher education was concerned.