What is Field Education in Social Work?

The Council on Social Work Education sets standards for social work education.  Expectations of field education in social work are outlined in the statement below from the Education Policy and Accreditation Standards of the Council on Social Work Education:

Field education is an integral component of social work education anchored in the mission, goals, and educational level of the program. It occurs in settings that reinforce students’ identification with the purposes, values, and ethics of the profession; fosters the integration of empirical and practice-based knowledge; and promotes the development of professional competence. Field education is systematically designed, supervised, and evaluated on the basis of criteria by which students demonstrate the achievement of program objectives.