ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the traditional fieldwork approach, then illustrates how a practitioner can conceptualise and organise a positive learning field experience that takes account of, and even capitalises on, the realities and constraints of the workplace in which the student is placed. The gradual entrance of innovative fieldwork as an alternative to the traditional one-to-one supervision arrangement has been one way in which the university and the field have worked creatively to offer a useful learning experience in the work environment. The student 'consumer' identity sweeping all educational sectors both limits and extends the opportunities for, and control of, students. One university has a contractual arrangement with the agency whereby the agency accommodates a group of students and provides supervised human services experience in direct service for approximately 50 per cent of the fieldwork. The chapter discusses the innovative solutions for common structural dilemmas faced by practitioners when they confront the possibility of providing student fieldwork.
