Field Placement Explained

The field placement is a critical component of undergraduate social work education. Social Work students at Providence College complete 600 hours of field placement experience, distributed across the junior and senior years.

The three courses which comprise the field education portion of the curriculum combine professionally supervised experience in the community and engaging seminars in the classroom. Through these experiences, students are exposed to and engaged in direct social work practice. The program’s approach to field education is personal, practical, and designed to actively engage students in the work.

Through field placements in a wide array of settings, students gain firsthand experience and develop skills in engagement, assessment, goal setting, intervention, and evaluation. These skills are built through counseling, outreach, service coordination, case management, community organizing, policy advocacy, capacity building, and more.

In the field, social work students:

• counsel children and families in school and afterschool settings
• provide support to individuals experiencing homelessness, interpersonal violence, or various physical or mental health challenges
• support non-profit organizations in research, evaluation, and grant writing
• lobby state legislators and write legislative testimony
• represent the interests in children in family court
• help newly-arrived immigrant and refugee families acclimate to their new community
• …and much more!