I have finished a Bacelors degree several years ago and after working several years in Social work settings I decided to completed my BSW on a part-time basis to enhance career opporunities. I have to do two placements but of course they are unpaid. I have to leave a full-time job and do two placements wih no income. Even though I work in a setting which has a social work field instructor and often takes students, I can not do my placement where I work. It has to be at another agency different from where I am employed.
This makes little sence to me! I have to leave a paying job to complete my degree at another setting where there is no pay? One wonders if it is this way because social work is female dominant. However, business and engineering students, which are of male dominated professions, have paid work terms.
Do anyone find this as frustrating as I do?

Diane I agree, However you can get paid work exp (if available) and I am currently doing my BSW part-time and am allowed to do a practicum in the same agency i work at, but it must be an entirely different role.

Hi again Diane:

You raise an interesting point about unpaid placements and gender. I lean towards the belief that social work is under-valued compared to business and engineering, but not because of gender. Business & engineering are profit-driven professions compared to social work, which is mostly non-profit or government supported.

An engineering student can do work for a company that may lead to increased productivity and sales. A clinical social work intern may be able to take on some basic cases but the work required by the agency to coordinate and supervise the student's time is hardly worth the effort. A SW intern can rarely turn a "profit" and therefore is not worth paying.

At the hospital where I work, a local university pays the SW department for taking on students who get no pay for their work. Psychology interns (PhD candidates), on the other hand, do get paid, which is routine in placing agencies because they can conduct and produce assessments that are considered highly valuable.

If PhD psychology placements were dominated by women (I believe it is now at least 50/50), would it then be without pay? Now that is a poser.

Tom from Canada

Dianne,

Some schools allow paid placements, and some don't. Some allow placements in your place of employment, and some don't. Sounds as if your school does not allow either. We have published articles on both of these issues in THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER. The main argument against doing a placement in your place of employment is that the purpose of the placement is for you to LEARN. If you are doing what you have already done in your job, you are not learning new skills. As Capri said, if you can do the placement in the same agency but in a completely different role or different department, that might work. There are also issues of role confusion--are you an employee or a student? There are quite a few other issues related to this--these are some of the main ones.
Linda