The Field Practicum is a dynamic course that challenges students to apply social work practice knowledge, skills, and values within an organizational and community context. It is a vital dimension of students’ undergraduate and graduate social work education. The hours of the field practice prepare students to enter the work force as professional social work practitioners.
Benefits of Field Practicum
- The Field Practicum course affords experiential assessment and evaluation of students’ development in the process of becoming a helping professional. Students are provided opportunities to apply their academic and practice experiences in the reality of the agency-client-service matrix. Through the supervised field experience, students participate in, and become familiar with, the many components of the social work profession and its varied roles. The ideal field placement offers students a focus on the methods of direct practice, policy development and implementation, and other social work special projects and research activities.
- Field Practicum provides practice experiences in a continuum of modalities and varying sizes of systems, including work with individuals, families, small groups, and communities within an organizational and community context. It is expected that students will experience a diversity of client populations and intervention issues, relying upon a range of theoretical concepts and models to develop breadth of learning and establish a broad base for practice.