Field Placement

Field education provides students with an opportunity to learn about and apply theoretical knowledge to practice situations with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Trent BSW students complete a minimum of 700 supervised Field Placement Hours. Most students complete two placements, one in their third year for 240 hours and a second placement in their fourth year, for 460 hours.

Field Practicum Learning Objectives

Students are expected to acquire the knowledge, values, and skills to become effective generalist social work practitioners. This is facilitated partially during their placements, using the following field learning objectives:

1. Professional Social Work Identity: develop a professional social work identity in line with social work values and ethics of the social work profession. Students demonstrate the ability to understand and apply the guidelines of the Canadian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics, and social work core values and principles;
2. Professional and Reflective Practice: practice reflectively and apply methods of critical thinking and inquiry into social work practice;
3. Engagement with Individuals, Groups, and Communities: develop social work skills to enable them to work effectively through a planned change process with individuals, families, groups and communities;
4. Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice: demonstrate knowledge about the ability to provide effective service to individual service users whose identities encompass and intersect a range of social positions;
5. Policy: understand how social policies, in various forms, influence the services provided by the agency, and ultimately, service users and communities. Students understand various forms of oppression, and develop professional practice orientations and frameworks in keeping with social justice outcomes;
6. Research: apply research skills to develop a deeper professional understanding of the experiences of service user.