Some of the most important learning that occurs during the completion of your Masters of Social Work program happens outside the classroom. Field education, also called practicum, fieldwork or field experience, is the hands-on training portion of your MSW program. It is a chance for you to test the waters, to make mistakes in a supportive learning environment and find your niche within the diverse array of social work career options.
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Betsy Voshel, Director of Field Education at the University of Michigan states, “Field placement is not a job — it is a professional opportunity where one learns how to ‘think and act like a social worker.’ Students need to comprehend what it means to become a professional in the workforce, which includes demonstrating professional conduct as well as absorbing the expectations of the role they play in a host setting.”
Where will you complete your field education hours? Like concentrations in the MSW program, there are many options, and those options stem from your concentration, or area of focus. Some MSW students spend their practicum days at hospitals or community health agencies. Students interested in school social work may complete their hours at a school or school-community partnership. You may find yourself working for a government agency, such as the department of social services or a correctional facility.
The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) is the accrediting body for all higher education schools of social work in the United States. The goal of the CSWE is to ensure that all students who earn the title of Social Worker have met the same standards of quality for professional practice. The CSWE sets the tone and requirements for field education and all other components of MSW programs.
According to the CSWE:
The intent of field education is to connect the theoretical and conceptual contribution of the classroom with the practical world of the practice setting. It is a basic precept of social work education that the two interrelated components of curriculum — classroom and field — are of equal importance within the curriculum, and each contributes to the development of the requisite competencies of professional practice. Field education is systematically designed, supervised, coordinated, and evaluated based on criteria by which students demonstrate the achievement of program competencies (1).
Additionally, the CSWE requires that MSW students complete both a generalist field education experience that allows students to learn and demonstrate CSWE’s core competencies (e.g., utilizing ethical principles to conduct practice) and an advanced field experience that allows students to demonstrate competence in advanced generalist or clinical environments. CSWE further establishes guidelines that accredited schools of social work must follow in terms of:
These guidelines ensure that, regardless of where in the country students are earning their MSW, they are receiving a consistent, high-quality experience in the on-the-job portion of their social work training.
Danielle Doskocil holds a master’s degrees in both rehabilitation counseling and clinical social work, with a graduate certificate in addictions and a secondary concentration in social policy. She is a licensed professional counselor in North Carolina. For the last eight years, she has worked as a school substance abuse social worker in an urban school district plagued by low-test scores and high gang involvement. Prior to her current role, she served as an advocate for students with disabilities as a vocational rehabilitation counselor and worked as the lead clinician in a residential dual-diagnosis substance abuse and mental health treatment facility in suburban Orlando, Florida.
During her hybrid in-class and online MSW program, Danielle completed her field education experiences in community resource and case management and clinical mental health and worked as a graduate research assistant in the School of Social Work at the University of Central Florida. When she’s not fighting the often uphill battle that is adolescent substance abuse, Danielle is an author, freelance editor, and mom to a very sassy toddler princess.
Betsy Voshel is an Associate Clinical Professor of Social Work and Director of Field Instruction at the University of Michigan. She has been a licensed master social worker with membership in the Academy of Certified Social Workers since 1980 and received a post-master’s teaching certificate from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003.
Betsy was the Coordinator of Field Education at Western Michigan University from 2000 to 2004. Prior to that, she was the Clinical Supervisor for a large award-winning outpatient mental health program at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Battle Creek, Michigan. She also coordinated the VA’s multi-faceted field instruction program and served as a field instructor for many years.
Betsy has been involved with the National Association of Social Workers since 1978 and was named Region II Social Worker of the Year in 2003. She served on the Chapter Ethics Committee, the Michigan Chapter Board of Directors and was a delegate to the NASW Delegate Assembly.
As the Field Director at the U-M School of Social Work, Betsy created and developed a student peer facilitator teaching model for the school’s foundation field seminar. She has presented nationally and internationally on developing signature field instruction curriculum, portfolio development, safety training for social workers, and countless workshops focusing on social work ethics.
What follows are the basic tenants of Field Education and some brief definitions to help you understand what follows in this guide:
Foundation Year: also known as the generalist year or “first year” of the traditional MSW program. The foundation year is when MSW students develop the basic skills necessary to conduct psychosocial work with individuals, families or groups.
Concentration Year: the second year of a traditional MSW program, also known as the advanced year or clinical year (of a clinical social work program); this is when MSW students learn advanced intervention skills, such as diagnosis and treatment planning, crisis intervention, clinical or suicidality assessments, etc.
Field Education Department: the sub-section of your university’s school of social work devoted to the identification, matching, overseeing and credentialing of field placement sites at which students may complete their field education experience.
Field Agency: your field education site or placement. This is the location where you will conduct your supervised field education practice or practicum.
Field Placement Coordinator: sometimes known as the school of social work’s director of field education, this is a member of the university faculty who manages and oversees field placement site selection and qualification, consults with field instructors, makes site visits to ensure student learning occurs according to university and CSWE standards. This person is available to both students and field instructors throughout the learning process.
Field Agency: your field education site or placement, the location where you will conduct your supervised field education practice. In most cases, the emphasis of this agency should be placed on social work practice and related activities.
Field Instructor: the on-site professional who meets CSWE and your school’s required credentials. This individual also provides on-site supervision, instruction, mentoring and evaluation of the MSW student’s learning.
Field Education Seminar: a regularly scheduled class meeting of students from a variety of field education sites with a member of your university’s faculty to process and integrate theoretical concepts taught in the classroom and students’ experiences during on-site learning.
FIND SCHOOLS Sponsored ContentYou will complete your field education experience concurrently with your classes. The exact schedule will vary based on your educational plan (full-time or part-time), your university’s course schedule, and your agency’s hours of operation. Most schools of social work arrange class schedules so that students will have “classroom days” and “field days.” The number of days you spend at your site will vary between your foundation and concentration years.
The CSWE currently requires MSW students to complete a minimum of 900 hours of field education during their graduate school career. Each university varies in how they split these hours up. For many programs, students complete between 300-450 hours during the first/generalist year of their MSW and reserve the remaining hours for the clinical or concentration year. Some schools require that you devote at least one eight-hour day per week to being at your field education site.
While most states follow the CSWE guidelines for licensure, it’s important to note that some states may require students to complete more than 900 hours during their MSW program in order to be eligible for licensure. For that reason, some schools of social work may require that students complete more than 900 hours in order to ensure that students are licensure-eligible.
The first year of your MSW program, commonly referred to as your foundation year or generalist year, is where you will learn the core competencies of social work practice. The foundation year of Field Education mirrors that learning in terms of its expectations (2). This includes skills such as utilizing the National Association of Social Work Code of Ethics when making decisions with and for your clients, demonstrating cultural competency when working with diverse populations, and utilizing basic counseling schools to work with individuals, families, groups and communities.
According to Betsy Voshel, “Students should be given opportunities to demonstrate their ability to handle increased complexity, rigor and independence, which should be determined through continuous, constructive feedback and supervision by a credentialed social worker.”
Don’t be alarmed if this sounds intimidating. You’ll be learning all about ethics, diversity and counseling in the social work classes you take concurrently with your field education experience. You’ll also have a roster of supporters, both at your field site and back at school, to help you along the way.
In a traditional full-time MSW program, your foundation year field experience begins the same semester as your class work, though perhaps not the very first day or even the first week. Your university will provide you with a schedule of when you’re expected to report to your field site and for how long. The number of hours varies by school so that students are not only meeting CSWE’s requirements, but also the state’s required number of hours for students who wish to pursue licensure.
You’re probably wondering where these field education sites are located. These are predominantly agencies whose focus is social work (department of social services, area mental health organizations, substance abuse treatment centers) or larger organizations who host departments of social workers (hospitals, schools).
Like most aspects of social work education, there’s a lot of variety to the “where.” Community plays a large role in this aspect of your MSW program. While some communities offer a variety of community-based social service programs, some focus their revenues on funding government programs such as the Department of Children and Families. And since social workers meet clients where they are both physically and emotionally, areas with higher Latino populations will have more services geared to Spanish speakers while other communities may have larger than average senior populations and thus have more opportunities for rehabilitative care and nursing home settings. It’s important to keep in mind as you’re choosing your MSW program. If you know what kind of agency you’d like to work in, be sure it’s on your prospective school’s list of approved field education sites.
Speaking of approved sites, this is another important thing to keep in mind: not all social work agencies are approved field education sites. Your university works closely with agencies in the community to ensure that those agencies are qualified places of learning. This includes having a qualified staff member to serve as your field instructor and providing those personnel with training for this role.
Some schools of social work assign students to sites based on a variety of factors, of which personal interest of the student may only be one. Agency need and availability of qualified staff, experiences that previous students have had at those sites, and schedule matching are some of the other factors involved. Some schools allow MSW students to choose from a variety of pre-approved field education sites. Others assign students with their input, but others may assign without student input. Some schools allow employed students to utilize their work site for their field site; others do not. Therefore, if choice is important to you, you’ll want to research this aspect of your prospective school’s policies.
You may be feeling overwhelmed at the idea of this great unknown that is field education. However, you should know now that nearly every student who has come before you felt the same way, and for those who didn’t, they probably weren’t thinking hard enough! You need not worry, as there will be a variety of experienced professionals available to guide you through this process. Keep that support in mind when anxiety strikes, and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it.
Do what you can to prepare ahead of time. Reading this guide is a good start. You should also familiarize yourself with your school’s Field Education Handbook (many are available online) as well as the NASW Code of Ethics, your field site’s employee or field education handbook, and your state’s rules and laws for social workers. For example, you’ll want to know the procedures you must follow in cases of abuse or neglect of a minor, older adult, or person with special needs. Much of this information is available through your school of social work’s website, your state chapter of NASW, and the agency you’ll be serving. If you can’t find it, ask!
Speaking of being prepared, get organized! There’s a lot to keep track of with field education. Not only will you keep records of your client contact hours, your hours on site, your meetings with supervisors, etc., but you’ll also need to maintain professional documentation in accordance with your agency’s policies and your code of ethics. That’s a lot of paperwork, so make a plan for keeping track of it. If you’re not typically an organized person, you’ll want to learn this skill before you get too far into your semester.
You’re a student — you’re not supposed to know everything. Field instructors are provided because there is an expectation that students are facing a learning curve. Enter your foundation year with humility and questions — the more the merrier. In field education, the only dumb questions are the ones you don’t ask, especially if the situation leads to problems for your clients or yourself.
Seek supervision early and often. If your gut tells you something’s not right, you’re not sure how to handle a situation or you’re feeling overwhelmed, talk about it. Social work professionals agree to be field instructors because they want to help shape the newest members of our field. Moreover, they’ve been in your shoes. Those niggling doubts you have aren’t signs that you’re stupid or incompetent; they’re normal for anybody learning to think about human behavior in a completely new way.
Maintain healthy boundaries. Your field education site is a classroom, but at the same time it’s not. It’s a place of business where people undergo change and healing. While it’s okay to shoot the breeze with your peers, make plans to socialize or act laid back in a normal classroom, your field education site is not that sort of place. Maintain professional boundaries with your colleagues and clients at your field site. You never know when a job opportunity might come up. You don’t want the administrator doing the hiring to think you’re a keg-stand fanatic who regularly comes to work hung-over. Let your field site actions demonstrate that you take your work seriously.
Your social work career starts now! In addition to learning the basics of how to be a social worker, your foundation year teaches you a lot about who you are as a professional. Some of what you learn about yourself on the job might surprise you. If you’re into journaling, keep one. Process your feelings with your field instructor, faculty adviser or field seminar colleagues. And remember: don’t fight those instincts. One of the best things about social work is that there really is a home for every kind of worker.
Foundation year is about figuring out what type of home you want. That way, when it comes time to choose your specialization or your concentration year field experience, you have a solid idea of where in the world of social work you want to live.
