In this final fieldwork placement, you will immerse yourself in a professional practice environment, gaining a strong sense of competence and confidence in preparation for entering the social work profession. Field education aims to provide you with a robust and fulfilling learning experience, ensuring a collaborative endeavour between the university, you as a student, host organisations, and supervisors. The focus of activities will be on learning outcomes directly linked to the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Practice Standards. Field education is a distinctive pedagogy for social work education, enabling you to integrate classroom learning with professional practice, refine your ways of thinking, doing, and being, and develop your professional identity, integrity, and practice frameworks. Throughout the placement, you will be socialised into the profession by engaging in real practice contexts, creating a constructive and reciprocal learning space. A Field Education Manual will guide you through the placement process, providing a detailed framework and administrative arrangements, including attendance and assessment requirements, as well as roles and responsibilities of all parties. The manual outlines the inherent requirements and performance expectations based on the AASW Practice Standards and ASWEAS General and Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes. You are required to attend the compulsory learning intensive associated with the co-requisite unit, SOWK14010, and participate in designated call-back sessions.

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Feedback from SUTE

SOWK14009 Fieldwork Education 2 learning experiences are so valuable. I would love to see future students doing more peer group work/supervision and harnessing the value of peer sharing experience in more ways than just forum reflections that are written formally. We want genuine, authentic, personable ways of reflecting and shared learning that are facilitated by the ed coordinators. However, fully acknowledge capacity and time management around this.

This valuable feedback has been taken on board. A peer supervision model will be reintroduced in 2025, with opportunities for more authentic and collaborative reflection. We aim to embed these sessions into the term structure to ensure they are meaningful yet manageable alongside placement commitments.

Feedback from SUTE

While I understand that reflection is an important part of professional growth, I wish we didn't have to do the 1000-word reflection and just handed in our supervision notes. It added to the already heavy workload.

In response, we have streamlined assessment expectations. The formal 1000-word reflective essay has been removed and replaced with the inclusion of annotated supervision notes within the final placement report. This allows reflection to remain embedded in practice while reducing assessment burden.

Feedback from SUTE

I loved the field ed team! They have been absolutely amazing to work with, and I am so happy to have had the privilege of learning and growing under their direction. I don't think I would be the social worker I am becoming today if it weren't for the team!

We deeply appreciate this feedback. The field education team is committed to being responsive, supportive, and grounded in real-world practice. We aim to foster a safe and encouraging environment where students can grow both professionally and personally.