Volunteer Management

Volunteers are a big and essential part of many events. Festivals, sports and cultural activities all have a participatory aspect which in many cases means collaborating with volunteers – either directly or indirectly through different groups and associations.

Though volunteers have been a part of these fields for more than a hundred years, volunteers were for a long time seen merely as a resource. Later the understanding of i.e., the specific recruitment, leadership, motivation and commitment of volunteers has been seen as something to be understood in its own terms.

In this course, you will get an in-depth understanding of the processes surrounding volunteer management, from recruitment and organising to motivation, leadership and retention of the volunteers. We will explore the difference between the management of stable volunteers, who are in the organization for longer periods and the volunteers who are there briefly for an event. During the course, you will join local festivals and/or events as a volunteer yourself, and that will be the basis for the reflections in class and the test.

The purpose of the course is to give you an understanding of volunteer management and the particular set of skills and methods needed when working with volunteers.

The student will have:
• Knowledge of particular characteristics of volunteer management in different fields
• Knowledge of differences in managing long- and short-term volunteers The student will be able to:
• Make strategies for the recruitment, organizing and retaining of volunteers
• Critically reflect on the leadership and motivational work needed, when working with volunteers The student will be able to:
• Demonstrate theoretical knowledge of volunteer management and account for the key theories and concepts of the field
• Demonstrate how theories and concepts are applied in practice and offer specific examples of this

Elective courses must total 20 ECTS credits of the total ECTS credits of the programme. It is possible to
choose between 10 elective courses, which are described in detail in the following.

The programme offers the opportunity to choose one elective course of 10 ECTS credits and two elective courses of 5 ECTS credits during the 4th semester.

The selection of elective courses takes place by students consulting this elective course catalogue. Afterwards, students submit their preferred electives in a form sent out by the study administration. Students will receive this form via email.
Each student must indicate two preferences for 10 ECTS courses and three preferences for 5 ECTS courses. The student must choose the elective courses sometime in November. Students who have not submitted the form with their choices before the deadline will automatically be assigned elective courses.
NOTE! It is not a first-come, first-served system; the allocation of elective courses will only begin after the deadline for submitting the form.

If the number of students who wish to take a course exceeds the maximum enrolment for the course, the study administration will allocate the spots. Every effort will be made to ensure that students receive their 1st or 2nd choice whenever possible.
The program's Coordinator can be contacted for questions regarding course selection or the selection process: mije@zealand.dk
Most elective courses are taught in English as they include international exchange students. Therefore, some of the following course descriptions are in English. Three courses are offered in Danish, and their descriptions are provided in Danish.