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Private practice placements will only be considered for MSW students going into their specialization year practicum. These placements are not available to BSW or first year MSW students since their field education focuses on generalist and not clinical practice.

Students can bring any questions or concerns to the field education team by emailing um.sw.fieldoffice@umontana.edu.

The majority of practicum agencies do NOT offer placements that allow for evening and weekend hours – such placements are rare if not nonexistent! Services to and engagement with clients is often times limited during evening and weekend hours thus it is hard to ensure for a rich learning experience. Students need to plan to do their practicum hours during regular business hours when other agency staff are available to provide support.

Employment based practicums (EBP) can be an option as long as your place of employment is supportive of you being both in an employee AND a student role and the agency agrees to the UMSSW practicum requirements (e.g. providing weekly supervision, attending site visits, providing quality learning experiences etc.). In short – a practicum at your place of employment needs to ensure that your practicum role and tasks provide you with new and distinct learning opportunities and that the role addresses the CSWE core competencies.

Generally speaking, no, as students are encouraged to get diverse learning and practice experiences over the two practicum placements. However, sometimes students have the opportunity to stay with the same agency but take on a completely different role that allows for diverse and new learning. In that case, staying at the same agency might be an option, although students have to submit a proposal to the FEP.

Students need to plan to do their practicum hours during regular business hours when other agency staff are available to provide support. Being present during normal business hours will allow students to be fully involved in the day to day processes of agency life, including attending staff or clinical meetings, supporting walk-in clients, shadowing other social workers, or jumping into other activities and opportunities available to them. 

Students working full-time in addition to completing 15-hours of practicum each week, are strongly encouraged to proactively discuss need for flexibility with their place of employment as field placement hours tend to primarily occur Monday – Friday 8am – 5pm. 

Many students find a part-time job that offers evening and weekend hours. This arrangement allows them to focus on their practicum, managing school workload, and ensuring ongoing income. 

Although the majority of practicums remain unpaid, more and more agencies do offer paid practicums (either hourly or via an educational stipend), and more students are able to apply for a practicum with their existing employment agency. That said, there are pros and cons to consider about paid and employment based placements, highlighted in  this article. Practicum is intended for students to be learners, make mistakes and wear different hats, and at times, paid and employment placements limit the freedom of being a learner. These placements also affect how students can set boundaries. It is a lot easier to say “no, I cannot work this shift because I have met my practicum hour limit etc.” in the student role versus being a paid staff member who is an employee first and student second. It is also important to keep in mind that should anything happen to your employment, e.g. your position is grant funded and funding runs out and the agency has to lay you off, then this simultaneously impacts your practicum.

This might be a requirement for your placement and is dependent upon individual agency policies. 

Please be advised that certain types of criminal convictions may lead to an agency’s inability to bring on a practicum student. It is critical that this information is proactively communicated to the FEP and any potential agency to discuss placement options and additional support needs. 

Note: As a UM student you have access to legal support via ASUM legal services. You are encouraged to utilize this support service with legal questions. 

Students complete a total of 900 hours over the course of two academic years (fall to spring). Students are in one placement for the whole 450 hours of their generalist year and a second placement for the whole 450 hours of their specialization year. Your practicum is approximately 15 hours a week between end of August and the beginning of May. 

In short – there is never a 100% guarantee that your agency checks all the boxes BUT…you get out of your practicum experience what you put into it and are very much in the driver’s seat of your learning! One early way of figuring out if the agency is a good fit is to research potential sites. This includes reviewing the agency website, talking to other social service professionals about the agency and practicum opportunities, and if possible, reaching out to past practicum students who might be able to share insight into their experience with the agency. The interview at the agency also serves the purpose of identifying if the site and learning experiences offered meet your learning needs and hopes. Make sure to ask questions about day to day life of a practicum student at the agency, initial onboarding and training at the placement, and ongoing supervision and professional development opportunities. 

Practicum is a credit/ no credit experience and the student’s AFI (Agency Field Instructor), in addition to ongoing feedback during regular supervision and a mid-year qualitative evaluation that both the student and the supervisor complete, assigns the final grade. We use a competency scale rating system (1-5 with 1 = no competency to 5 = demonstrating competency).

Students are encouraged to contact a minimum of 3-5 organizations they are interested in and interview with at least 2-3 of them. This allows for more than one option as practicum placements are never a guarantee and are becoming more competitive.  You are encouraged to view the outreach and interview process as a professional development and practice opportunity – please treat it as a dry run for your future social work career and jobs you will apply to post-graduation.

Students receive 4 credits total for generalist year practicum (2cr. in the fall, 2cr. in the spring) and 6 credits total for specialization year practicum (3cr. in the fall, 3cr. in the spring).

Students complete a total of 900 hours over the course of two academic years (fall to spring). Students are in one placement for the whole 450 hours of their generalist year and a second placement for the whole 450 hours of their specialization year. Your practicum is approximately 15 hours a week between end of August and the beginning of May. 

Considering how service delivery and workplace culture has changed in the past two years during the COVID pandemic, this is an excellent question. Although it is still quite rare, we are seeing more students in fully remote and virtual practicum placements. As long as the agency/program meets all practicum requirements and the student can engage in and develop the various social work competencies, a placement can indeed be remote. Regular and supportive supervision is a critical component of a remote placement to ensure success and growth in a placement. 

Here are potential cons to consider: Limited to no actual engagement in an agency setting and thus limited learning about agency workplace culture and dynamics. What students will miss with fully remote placements is the casual office chatter and the experience of getting to know colleagues in the hallway. And, keep in mind that you are already engaging in school fully remote, and that it might be a lot to add 15 hours of a remote practicum to that each week. Lastly, client interactions are different, of course, and especially if you want to build a clinical foundation, we do not recommend starting out with remote/ telework.

Students going into their generalist year (year one) of practicum must have their Practicum Proposal Form submitted in Sonia no later than July 15 to ensure time for the agency review process and completion of required paperwork.

Students going into their specialization year (year two) of practicum must have their Practicum Proposal Form submitted in SONIA no later than July 1 to ensure time for agency review process and completion of required paperwork.

Your Agency Field Instructor (AFI) needs to have an MSW degree with at least 2 years of post-degree experience. If the AFI does not meet this requirement they can still serve as your AFI but additional MSW supervision needs to be arranged. This could either happen in the form of another staff member at the agency who can serve in the MSW supervisor role or, should there be no qualifying MSW at the practicum organization, the UMSSW will work with the student and provide outside MSW supervision.

As social workers, we wear many different hats, engage in practice on various levels, and utilize a diverse set of skills. Consequently, we have to be competent in an array of skills and practice behaviors. These practice behaviors and competencies are set by our accrediting body, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and offer a critical framework to your learning in both the classroom and your practicum experiences. Each competency describes the dimensions of knowledge, values, skills, and cognitive and affective processes that comprise the competency at the generalist level of practice, followed by a set of behaviors that integrate these components. These behaviors represent observable components of the competencies, while the preceding statements represent the underlying content and processes that inform the behaviors. 

During the field education experience, students must demonstrate learning goals and activities that allow them to work towards these competencies. This is done in a highly structured manner via the development of a detailed learning agreement which is part of the practicum course. 

Settling into a new agency with a new role naturally comes with a learning curve and at times challenges might arise. Should you run into concerns during your practicum experience, please be proactive in communicating with your AFI and your field liaison (the seminar instructor).  Students are encouraged to follow these problem solving phases should issues arise. Please refer to the MSW student handbook for exact policy details. 

Agencies that have not had one of our social work students will go through a brief agency application and review process led by the FEP. This process ensures that the agency understands all practicum requirements and is a good fit for our students. Once you’ve identified a new agency as a potential placement site, you will complete an agency proposal form that includes all agency and supervision information plus your practicum role and responsibilities. Once this form is received, the FEP will contact the agency to review that information, answer any questions the agency might have, and then share our affiliation agreement. 

Your generalist first year practicum is more foundational in nature and may be done at a wide range of agencies. It is intended to support the development and integration of foundational social work skills, competencies, and practice behaviors. 

Your specialization second year practicum is intended to build on the foundational experience of year one and should allow you to engage in more advanced practice tasks. Consequently, it is focused on deepening specific knowledge and skills, e.g. development and practice of clinical skills. 

The 1-credit seminar course (2 credits total over fall and spring) runs parallel to a student’s field education experience and provides a space to discuss practicum experiences and challenges, integrate theory into practice, and engage in a mutually-supportive teaching-learning model with other peers in practicum settings. Students take 2cr. Of generalist year seminar and 2 cr. of specialization year seminar. 

For both years of practicum, students are responsible to identify, reach out to, and interview with potential practicum agencies. Extensive support is provided throughout the process and reviewing information in this field orientation is critical to understanding the process and having all of the information needed, including email templates and talking points for agency outreach. 

• To start the process of a generalist year (= first year) placement, all students must submit an application to the UMSSW FEP via their personal SONIA account (SONIA is the practicum software program we utilize for all practicum paperwork).
• Once the FEP receives, reviews, and approves your practicum application, you will receive a follow up email with more information about next steps, including support services as you reach out to agencies and pursue placement options, and next steps once you have finalized a potential placement. 

Since professional social workers wear many hats, students have the opportunity to do a variety of placements with a wide range of learning opportunities. Social work practicum placements occur in settings that allow for direct service with individuals, families, and groups; for example:

• child welfare programs,
• behavioral health agencies,
• domestic/sexual violence programs,
• homelessness programs,
• substance abuse programs,
• correctional settings etc.

As well as in community organizing and policy focused contexts; for example:

• city or county government and social service programs,
• legislative offices,
• voter mobilization programs,
• civic engagement agencies, etc.

Some placements are more clinically focused while others are more macro-level/ advocacy focused. As long as students are able to engage in the CSWE Competencies they are likely able to get a rich learning experience.

Practicum runs from the beginning of the first fall module/ block (generally end of August) to the end of the second spring module/block (generally beginning of May). Practicum hours must occur over the course of this timeframe and students are not able to be done with their required hours early. Hours per se are not the final determination of the student’s fulfillment of practicum requirements. Not only do you make a commitment to an agency and to clients, it takes time and a learning curve to adjust to an organization, understand your role, and develop the skills for more autonomous practice. You must have the time to engage in different types of practice interventions and to see these through to completion.

The practicum agency needs to agree to assign a committed Agency Field Instructor (AFI) to the student who oversees the practicum throughout the academic year. That often times happens naturally as the program manager or director or maybe the lead clinician/ therapist is already in a supervisor role for the program and takes on student supervision. This is a great question to ask during an interview with potential practicum agencies. Per accreditation requirements, the AFI for MSW practicum needs to hold a MSW degree with at least two years of post-degree experience. If the AFI does not meet this requirement, another staff member at the agency can serve in the MSW supervisor role. Should there be no qualifying MSW at the practicum organization, the UMSSW will work with the student and provide outside MSW supervision.

UM Students are covered by the School’s professional liability insurance (a copy is available to students on their SONIA account) and are required to carry health insurance.