Innovative learning and teaching concepts: "Think tank" with practice partners

Volunteering is indispensable for many organisations in the social sector - it is therefore very important for the management of social organisations to deal specifically with this topic. In the Social Management" degree programme an innovative learning and teaching concept was therefore developed and implemented for the first time in the winter semester 2024/2025: A group of students prepared a course as part of the Supplementary module Volunteer Management in close co-operation with the volunteer agency in the district of Nordhausen.

Our goal

The aim was to initiate a mutually beneficial exchange between students and practice partners and to jointly discuss important topics and questions relating to volunteering. Key questions were addressed in various discussion formats, for example What are the key challenges for volunteering from the perspective of different social enterprises? What ideas are there for overcoming these challenges and what framework conditions are necessary for this? And and and...

Project week "Soma in action"

The think tank was organised as part of the Project week "Soma in action" - In this way, students were able to participate across all year groups, establish contacts with practice partners and experience at first hand the topics, questions and challenges faced in practice.

And the organisations also benefited, as the statement of one participant shows:

"It was great to get to know the students' perspectives and ideas, we're taking away important ideas from here!"

Participants in the "Think Tank"

The Think Tank format was a valuable teaching format for systematic collaboration with professional practice.