The first field placement requires 120 hours and is scheduled in the summer between the student's first and second years in the program. It is usually completed in the student's home town. The second field placement requires 480 hours over the senior year and is usually located in the region surrounding Ferris. The Ferris Social Work program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. It's a rewarding profession.
Social workers help to bring about individual and social change.
Examples include helping delinquent youth change their disruptive behavior, improving an abused child's chances of emotional and physical survival by providing supportive family services or locating alternate placement, helping alcoholics change their self-destructive habits, assisting communities in providing better housing for the elderly, or working professionally and politically to help our nation improve its policies and programs for the poor and unemployed. It's a big and diverse profession. There are approximately 500,000 social work jobs in the United States, with estimates of an additional 200,000 needed by the year 2005. Furthermore, the state of Michigan predicts 800 new social work jobs per year. Applicants with prior college work are required to have a minimum 2.3 GPA overall for prior college work and a minimum 2.5 GPA for prior college work in the social sciences and applied social sciences.