Three Weeks of Practical Experience: Students at Summer Camp

From August 5, 2019, 52 students are taking parts in the third practical summer camp of the Faculty of Business Studies and Economics. 12 interdisciplinary teams, some of which are international, will work on practical projects for three weeks. The results will be presented on August 23.

They are designing an “agile toolbox” for staff or developing a “marketing automation strategy” for a software product being launched onto the market – those are only two of several examples of how students from different subjects will practically apply what they have learnt during their degree at a three-week summer camp.

Methodical Knowledge Applied Practically

“We entered new territory with this in 2017 – with great success. The participants were amazed. This basically made it obligatory for us to do it again”, says Professor Jörg Freiling, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Business Studies and Economics. “With the summer camp in 2019, we want to give our students the opportunity to apply the methodical knowledge that they have acquired in their studies entrepreneurially and practically and to develop their soft skills. Taking a look at differing fields of work, which is good in terms of career guidance, is also part of this.” There are not only students with purely commercial backgrounds in the teams but also students from collaborative study programs (Engineering and Management, Information Systems and Management, and Business Psychology) and also Computer Science.

The second summer camp, which took place one year ago, was different to 2017 in that it not only had more projects but also in that bilingual (German / English), or rather international, teams were created. “This poses an additional challenge for the companies but many were open to this experiment”, according to Maren Hartstock from the Office for Practice and International Affairs at the faculty. “Our students bring a great deal of digital and intercultural competences along with them. This coupled with the testing of new types of team work for the companies means that we are breaking new ground during the summer camp, which is becoming continually more important in the working world.”

Number of Interested Companies Continually Rising

“Only” six companies and 43 students took part in 2017. The number of interested companies has been continually rising since then. “It has become known in the Bremen business world that the teams carry out excellent work – and some companies directly use the chance to make contact to talented and committed future graduates”, explained Maren Hartstock. “Ultimately, three weeks of outstanding work are more convincing than many interviews.” The practical summer camp supports so-called “Employer Branding” – measures taken to make a company known as an employer, which is becoming more important due to the lack of specialist workers. “Many great companies from Bremen and the region are not noticed as being potential employers by our students. That is what we want to change with our practical summer camp”, states Hartstock.

Since the beginning of this year, the organizational team of the practical summer camp has been cooperating with DIGILAB Brennerei 4.0 Innovationsprojekten (DIGILAB Distillery 4.0 Innovation Projects), an initiative of the Senator for Economy, Labor and Ports in cooperation with the Chair in Small Business and Entrepreneurship (LEMEX). Not only does this allow for the expansion of the practical summer camp’s network into economy and politics but also valuable coaching capacities are gained through this. The organizational team methodically supports and advises the student teams for the duration of the camp.

Presentation of Results on August 23

The students and companies will show the results of the individual projects to the wider community at the final presentation on Friday, August 23, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kraftwerk City Accelerator Bremen. There are a restricted number of places for the interested general public (send place requests to: mhartst@uni-bremen.de)

Media representatives are invited to cover the final presentation Friday, August 23, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the swb Kraftwerk City Accelerator Bremen.