A Preliminary Insight into Social Work Field Training at University of Peshawar

Social Work is an academic program and professional way of helping and enabling people who encounter psycho-social challenges in their life. It needs practical training in the form of fieldwork which is an indispensable activity of Social Work academic program across the globe. It is through fieldwork that the students internalize the practical concepts, values, skills and ethics of the professional social work practice for performing their role in social development of society after completing their social work education. For this purpose, a study was carried out to describe and explore the problems and issues encounter by the students in field placement during academic training of Social Work at University of Peshawar. A qualitative research designed was adopted in which Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted with the students of BS and MA program. It was found that there is a weak coordination between the Social Work Department and Social Welfare Agencies due to which students are incapable to broaden their abilities for coping future challenges of society after receiving degree.