Welcome to Social Work field education

This web site is designed to provide students, field education supervisors, agency and liaison staff with easy access to information, policies, procedures and materials used in the Deakin University's Social Work field education program.

The term ‘field education’ is used to describe the learning that occurs during placement, while students are located in either a practice agency or related human service organisational setting. For students, the field education units of the Bachelor of Social Work are often the most challenging yet rewarding and memorable components of the course. On placement, students develop a clear understanding of what knowledge, skills and values are required to work effectively in contemporary practice settings.

During the Bachelor of Social Work students undertake two supervised and assessed placements in two different types of human service organisations. Placements are designed to provide students with opportunities to apply practice theory, policy and research knowledge and skills in the workplace. As such, the field education units offer experiential learning opportunities, where students connect theory learned in the classroom with authentic case, family or group work, community development, policy analysis or research in the field.

Students are required to complete no less than 980 hours (or 140 full days) on placement during their undergraduate social work degree. This is made up of two seventy-day placements. The first, (HSW314) occurs during Trimester 1 in the third year of full-time study. The second placement (HSW415) occurs during Trimester 2 of the fourth year of full-time study.

Students are required to have passed all the first and second year core units before they can commence HSW314 Social Work Field Education A. Students are required to have passed all core units from levels 1 to 4 before commencing HSW415 Social Work Field Education B.

Requirements for field placements are governed by both the University and Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) policies and guidelines and more specific information is available in the Field Education Manual (PDF file, 1.6 MB).

• One of the two placements must be direct service delivery.
• One of the two placements must have a rural focus.
• Students must attend a pre-placement workshop prior to the first field placement.
• Students must have an interview with agency staff prior to placement being approved.
• Students are supervised by a social worker eligible for AASW membership for a minimum of 1.5 hours for every five placement days.
• Students receive liaison visits from University staff during the placement.
• Field placements must be approved by the University prior to students commencing.

Placement matching is done by University staff and guarantees cannot be given in relation to fields of practice or location. Students are given an opportunity, via the profile form, to list human service organisations in their area with which they might have had some contact; however, the University reserves the right to make final decisions regarding placement allocation.