Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The Community Engaged Practicum is Experiential Learning for University Transfer students in the Fall and Winter semesters of the 3^rd year. These learning opportunities will take place in the classroom and in the community, guided by an instructor who also provides important social work supervision to this experience. This learning may include mini-credentialing, workshops, community activism and service, or developing connections to communities.

Flexibility and learner-directed activities! Students will have the opportunity to identify activities that fit within their interests, lived experience, existing relationships and learning needs and goals.

The fall term component, the preparation seminar, is a graded course and its assignments are designed to prepare you for future learning activities in the winter term, and then ultimately for your Final Practicum.  

The total amount of practicum hours will be 300. 100 of these hours will be completed in the fall term through the preparation seminar’s assignments. The balance of the 200 hours will be completed in the winter term under the social work supervision of your instructor.

Students are not required to complete any preparation before they begin the community engaged practicum. 

Yes, the intent is to prepare you for the learning activities ahead in SOWK 392.

Wednesdays and Thursday have been set aside in your curriculum plans to be available for completing your practicum activities. However, if you have activities that you plan to complete at other times when you are NOT in a class, you may do so.

If who have previous related experience that includes social work supervision you may be able to apply for a Credit by Special Assessment (CSA) for SOWK 392 only. Eligible students apply for a CSA in the fall term during SOWK 390 and need to show knowledge and skills typically gained during practicum through prior experience. More details on eligibility to come. You'll still need to register and pay fees for SOWK 392 even if a CSA is granted. 

This is where you apply your social work skills and knowledge to a social work practice setting. Under the supervision of a field instructor and in a wide variety of agency settings, you will engage in supervised social work practice.

Please talk to your field education coordinator or refer to the field education manual to consider the various conditions that can be met for a workplace practicum, self-directed options, or other considerations.

Students must complete 400 hours in the final practicum and these are scheduled in your timetable to be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for full days. It’s important to make plans and arrangements early on in your program to accommodate that final practicum.

Yes, they are co-requisites and the seminar supports your learning in the Final Practicum.

Yes! A team of field education coordinators is here and provides a process to help you find a practicum. It is important to keep an open mind as you move towards practicum and these exciting learning opportunities.

Community Engaged Practicum, is part-time, taken alongside the fall and winter courses in the first year of the program. This will work well for students who are working full-time. Unlike a traditional practicum where students are full-time in an agency, this first practicum is a student-centered journey facilitating knowledge and skill development for social work practice.  

Final Practicum, will be completed via different pathways and can be in an agency, in the workplace, through research or the supervised self-directed practicum. Students who are working full-time often find workplace, research or supervised self-directed practicum options the best fit for life and learning.