Virtual/Online/Remote Field Placement with the ASWNet in Africa

This service is currently not available. It was primarily created for the COVID-19 period.

Every Student Social Worker is required to do fieldwork placement or attachment as part of their professional training. You can read more about field placement in social work here. This means joining a social work organisation and learning what they do mainly through hands-on work under the supervision of a qualified and experienced social worker. ASWNet provides opportunities for African and international students to do their placement remotely, that is online through the internet or phone.

Currently, we are not taking students for these placements.

We provide field work ranging from:

1. one hour (1 hour)
2. half day (4 hours)
3. one day (8 hours)
4. one week (40 hours)
5. two weeks/fortnight (80 hours), and
6. one month (160 hours).

This depends on the nature of the project. Students are not paid for the placement. Placements of over two hours are charged per student per hour. This ensures that we retain the most qualified and experienced supervisors.

Placements cover all domains of African social work:

1. Conventional social work placements
   Includes placements in clinical social work, welfare and charity settings, usually urban focused, non-preventive and individually-focussed.
   Can include classroom or laboratory based simulations.
   Works well where there are enough experienced social workers and adequate. resources to support students on placement, not usually the case in Africa.
   
2. Community and developmental social work placements
   Involves communities, villages, remote and rural areas – these are community focused or bottom up placements.
   Student can be placed in an agency that has no social workers or placed within a community instead of an agency.
   Works in communities that have no access to agencies, social workers or are remote.
   Promotes equitable development because without their involvement, the communities will never benefit from social work.
   The focus is to reduce poverty, empowerment and prevention of social challenges.
   More than 75% of people in Africa are poor, with no access to social workers, social work agencies or training institutions making these placements relevant.
   
3. Creative social work placements
   This model views social work students as innovators, creators, curators, organisers or activists.
   Social work as an art, using individual talents to solve social challenges.
   Working with other disciplines or communities where there are no social work supervisors or where social work is not usually there.