'I thought they would just let me do my job': Work-based practica in social work and welfare

Social work and welfare education courses are underpinned by concepts such as equity,\ud disadvantage and access as the guiding principles of practice with client groups. However,\ud the ‘clients’ of the university, the students, are often disadvantaged in the current economic\ud climate as they struggle to find the work/life balance with studying. In addition, many\ud students who also currently work in the welfare field feel further disadvantaged as the\ud knowledge and skills they bring to the course often go unrecognised. At the same time,\ud university educators often struggle to locate sufficient numbers of stimulating learning opportunities\ud for practica. We wondered if the time was right to explore work based practica\ud (WBP) as a way of addressing these issues. And we wondered what common practica was\ud across our networks with regard to WBP.\ud This article presents the findings of a three-stage project on the current practices, concerns,\ud benefits and disadvantages of WBP (that is practica in a student’s place of employment) in\ud social work and welfare education in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Recommendations\ud are presented so that WBP can be a more educationally sound optio