Welcome practicum instructors and agencies! We appreciate your dedication to helping the UA School of Social work maintain our commitment to excellence in practicum education.
Agency Partners
Every year, the School of Social Work partners with more than 300 social service agencies nationally for student practicum placements. Our agencies provide students with learning experiences that enable them to develop and integrate social work knowledge into their practicum practice. We ensure all agencies that we partner with meet the requirements and standards of the Council on Social Work Education, the accrediting body of the School’s BSW and MSW programs. Additionally, our students are only assigned to agencies that have been thoroughly vetted by the Office of Experiential Programs.
Become a Practicum Instructor
The School of Social Work invites you to become a practicum instructor. In this rewarding role, you can give back to the social work profession by supervising students and assisting them to integrate what they learn in the curriculum and in the practicum placement community.
The Office of Experiential Programs has partnerships with several hundred human service agencies, which provide students with learning experiences that enable development and integration of knowledge applied to practice. Practicum instructors are designated by their employing agency and must meet criteria mandated by CSWE for persons serving accredited schools of social work in this capacity. They are their agency’s representatives to the University.
Our practicum instructors provide on-site supervision, advisement, and instruction to placed students, thus promoting the development of social work skills and abilities as well as the incorporation of social work values and ethics. They do not receive monetary reimbursement for their services in this capacity. Most professional social work practitioners consider practicum education at any level as a service to the profession in that they ensure the continuance of skilled and knowledgeable social work professionals.
Persons serving as practicum instructors must meet the following criteria which are mandated by the Council on Social Work Education:
- Must be a graduate of an accredited school of social work and hold a Master’s Degree in Social Work;
- Must have two years of post-master’s professional experience.
In addition, The University of Alabama School of Social Work has the following requirements for people serving as MSW practicum instructors:
- Be prepared to offer adequate time within the normal duty periods for providing instruction for social work students
- Attend Practicum Instructor Workshops. The school provides opportunities to complete these workshops on campus or on-line.
We recognize that practicum instructors play a pivotal role in exposing students in the School of Social Work to real-world social work practice. We are always interested in working with social work professionals who share our dedication to helping our students succeed and transition from student to successful social work professionals.
Practicum Instructor Workshops