Vocational training at the sanatorium college

Pikonlinna saw the foundation of a sanatorium college in 1942. This institute was an important addendum due to long-term treatment periods. Subjects taught at the Pikonlinna College included metal and woodwork, different kinds of handicrafts, and typing. For example in 1944 the sanatorium college offered 16 courses.

The curriculum of the college consisted of the Finnish language and writing of business letters and documents, literature, bookkeeping, Swedish, arithmetic, typing, lettering, the use of combustion engine and wood-gas generator, the basics of agricultural machines, metalwork, filing, staining and polishing of furniture, agricultural electricity, telephone and radio engineering, cloth boot making, and straw work. The total number of students attending the courses in the spring and autumn term of 1944 was 372.

The courses offered by the Sanatorium College may have kindled the spark for a new career for many patients, if they needed to seek a less strenuous job due to the tuberculosis-induced disability after being discharged from hospital.

The sanatorium college also acted as an intermediary for courses of correspondence schools. In addition to organizing lectures and presentations, the college also showed films for both educational and entertainment purposes. Motion-picture equipment was installed in the sanatorium in 1951, after which films were shown on a regular basis. The introduction of new medicines at the end of the 1940s shortened hospital stays so dramatically that the college was closed in 1970.