Exploring experiences of non-South Africa social work students in field work placement

Field education is an essential part of the curriculum for social work practice training. During field work, students develop practice skills, translate theory from lectures to the reality of practice, and test their aptitude to be professional social workers. Field practicums afford students the opportunity to attest their fitness to be qualified professional social workers. Placements present critical learning period for students. There has been limited attention in South Africa directed specifically to experiences of international students in the field work and this is what this study will focus on. This research will be qualitative in nature. A non-probability purposive sampling will be used to select study participants. Semi- structured interview schedules will be used to conduct in-depth individual interviews with eight (8) participants. For triangulation purposes, the researcher will also interview one social work field placement supervisor. Interviews will be audio- recorded, with participants consent and transcribed verbatim in combination with the previous literature review. This study hopes to contribute to debates on social work field work placements at South African universities at an undergraduate studies level. Key words: field work placements, international students, social workGR201