Hosting student placements: Best practice guidelines

This resource has been developed for community sector organisations in Victoria that are, or are considering, hosting student placements. It provides evidence-based guidance to help organisations host high quality placements that provide mutual benefits for the students, host organisations and education providers.

This resource focuses on placements in four key courses relevant to the community service sector:

• Master of Social Work
• Bachelor of Social Work
• Diploma of Community Services and
• Certificate III in Individual Support.

It presents best practices for hosting students in these courses. These practices may, however, apply to other
courses, as the resource does not present specific requirements of individual courses, accrediting bodies or education providers.

Education providers facilitating student placements may also have tailored resources and manuals for host organisations which they are strongly encouraged to access.

This resource is intended to assist organisations of different sizes, hosting experience and levels of resourcing. The principles, tips and reflection prompts can support organisations wherever they are in their hosting journey – whether small organisations looking to host a student for the first time, or large, experienced host organisations seeking to demonstrate current best practice.

This resource is an initiative of a larger VCOSS project to support the sector in hosting quality student placements. VCOSS understands that some community sector organisations do not currently have the resources to demonstrate best practice in student placements. However, the resource should assist readers to reflect on their organisation’s current processes and context and identify some opportunities to strengthen practice.

The resource was developed based on findings from VCOSS’s Supporting high quality placements in the community services sector Insights Paper, a scan of current literature and policies, and consultations with community service organisations, Victorian education providers and the Victorian Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.

Please also see the VCOSS insights paper Supporting high-quality placements in the community services sector.