Expert exchange on school social work in Munich

From 25 to 27 October, a cross-university exchange on current developments in the field of school social work, youth welfare and schools took place once again. Topics included the development of all-day schooling and cooperation between teacher training and the training of school social workers. The participants from Munich, Vienna and Winterthur exchanged views on the current international state of knowledge and on the discussions and professional assessments of current developments as well as on the understanding of quality and quality standards of school social work and their assurance.

The exchanged focused on:

• Shortage of skilled professionnals and school social work
• Mental health as a challenge for school social work and schools
• Multi-professional collaboration and networking as a task of school social work, also as a possible approach to dealing with mental stress
• Insight into school social work in Finland
• Training concepts for school social work at our universities
• Quality standards and conditions for success of the Swiss School Social Work Association

In addition, a presentation on school social work in Finland was made possible for the first time thanks to the hybrid connection of a Finnish colleague from the National Institute for Health and Welfare. Further cooperation with Finland for further exchange formats is planned. The inputs from the three participating universities FH Campus Wien, HM and ZHAW provided many ideas for a targeted discourse on current and future issues in the area of cooperation between youth welfare and schools. The on-site visit to school social work at the primary school in Garching-West with a multi-professional and regional network at the school and beyond was also particularly impressive, providing an insight into success factors as well as current particular challenges and difficult developments.

In addition, joint hybrid teaching formats were explored with students from the three universities. One challenge here is the different semester times. The existing programmes at the ZHAW with the involvement of experts from the INUAS partners will continue. It is conceivable that these formats could also be extended to courses at the HM. There are also plans to possibly focus on a joint book project at the next INUAS exchange of expertise on school social work.