Department of Community Development (DCD)

The Field Instruction Program (FIP) is an important component of both the undergraduate and graduate Community Development curricula. It has been designed to complement theoretical knowledge and skills taught in the classroom by providing opportunities for students to apply CD concepts, principles, approaches, strategies and techniques on real-life situations in rural and urban setting, particularly in the areas of planning, research, education/training, and organizing. Whether in urban or rural setting, students are provided with varied opportunities for testing out knowledge in their chosen area of interest or specialization.

Aside from being a curricular requirement, FIP also serves as a vehicle for learning and service of both students and faculty.

Field Instruction in the BSCD program consists of 18 units of fieldwork (CD 180 and CD 181) which are taken concurrently with other field-based classes during the first and second semesters of the fourth year.

While at the graduate level, fieldwork consists of a 3-unit course (CD 280) required for both the MCD and DipCD programs. Students are expected to enrol full-time in the course(s) for at least one regular semester or one Mid-term.

Department of Social Work (DSW)

Historically, supervised field instruction was pushed by the concerted efforts of the Philippine Association of Social Workers (PASW), and the Social Welfare Administration (SWA); now the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the schools of social work in the early fifties. The PASW sponsored a series of conferences on social work supervision in 1951 and 1954. The SWA developed a student fieldwork program and designated a student field supervisor for such program in response to request from school of social work. Specifically at the University of the Philippines, Department of Sociology and Social Welfare, College of Liberal Arts (now College of Social Work and Community Development, CSWCD), field training projects for senior undergraduate and graduate students were instituted in 1953. Legislative support institutionalized field instruction with Republic Act no. 4373 of 1965, required the completion of a minimum period of one thousand hours of practical training under the direct supervision of fully trained and qualified social workers before a student can take the social work board examinations and become a registered social worker.

Today, supervised field instruction remains an important component of the Bachelor of Science in Social Work (BSSW). Field Instruction along with the three other social work curricular areas: Human Behavior and Social Environment, Social Welfare Policies and Programs, and Social Work Practice, are offered in consonance with the competency based social work education program.

Social work education uses supervised field instruction as essential medium of professional training to accomplish the following specific aims:

1. To provide the students the opportunity to integrate theory and practice under supervision;
2. To assist the student in acquiring an understanding of the realities in practice and in assessing his/her own fitness for social work; and
3. To enhance the student’s practice skills that will prepare him/her for competent practice.

• Integration of Theory and Practice
• Critical awareness of Philippine reality
• Commitment to the people and quest for a just society
• Beginning skills in social work practice, specific skills and techniques essential to SW practice
• Identification with the Social Work Profession

The program of undergraduate social work education is aimed at preparing the students for beginning competence in direct practice, i.e., competence in problem solving, competence in bringing needs and resources together, and competence in documenting the present level of services.

Field Instruction in the Bachelor of Science in Social Work (BSSW) curriculum consists of 20 units – five units are usually taken during the first semester (agency based) and fifteen units during the second semester of the senior year on a block arrangement (community based). These two field instruction courses (Social Work 150 and Social Work 151) make for a total of 1,000 hours of supervised field instruction required for social work board examination.

At the graduate level, the field instruction program is an essential component of professional training; a test in the integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes and student suitability for the social work profession.

The revised MSW curriculum aims to prepare the students for leadership in social transformation and human development through policy advocacy and development of innovative practice model using an integrative social work practice framework which is responsive to changing global and national realities. The Field Instruction in the Master of Social Work (MSW) curriculum consists of two 3-unit courses (Field Instruction II  and Field Instruction III) taken concurrently with classroom courses during the regular semester while in the Diploma in Social Work (Dip in SW), it consists of a 3-unit course (Field Instruction I).

Department of Women and Development Studies (DWDS)

The FIP aims to help students integrate feminist theories and practice by engaging in collaborative work with women’s groups and mixed gender organizations with a women’s program or desk.  This may be in the area of women’s organizing, training and education, research and documentation, consciousness-raising, advocacy work, program/project planning, administration and evaluation.

The FIP was conceptualized based on the belief that women’s studies should be attuned to and directly relevant to the realities of women in the field – the grassroots women, organized women’s groups, and mixed gender organizations with a women’s program or desk that work with grassroots women.  Through the FIP, the students are expected to refine feminist praxis as they learn with these women, as well as further enhance their knowledge, attitudes, and skills for their personal and professional development as women and as advocates of grassroots women.

The Field Instruction Program (FIP) is an integral component of the Graduate Program of the Department of Women and Development Studies (DWDS).  It is part of the requirements in the Masters in Women and Development Studies and Diploma in Women and Development Studies. The FIP is composed of two courses – the WD 280 and WD 281.  A student under Plan A (with thesis) is required to take Field Practice I (WD 280) only while a student under Plan B (comprehensive examination) is required to take both Field Practice I and II (WD 280 and 281).  Diploma students are required to take only Field Practice I (WD 280).