Social Work Practice Education in South Africa: Recent History, Current Approaches

This chapter will provide insight into how social work practice education is conceived in South Africa. South Africa has 19 accredited higher education institutions that offer the four-year Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree at the undergraduate level. All students must complete the BSW before registering to practice as a social worker. The BSW is also a prerequisite to pursue postgraduate courses in social work. Integral to the BSW is the completion of a series of concurrent or block field placements. Students are placed at diverse state, welfare and community-based organizations and are expected to implement hands-on interventions at the micro, meso and macro levels. The lockdown of 2020 and 2021 emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted access to welfare services. This, in turn, affected student placements and ultimately unsettled students who could not meet the field practice requirements of their degrees. This chapter will conclude with lessons learned, with hindsight, from a pandemic that has altered the perceptions of field practice education in this country.