- 4 mins
Every semester, front-line nonprofit social service organizations, both small and large, welcome practicum students from social work programs. While this isn’t always the case, these students—who work for free—often become easily exploitable. They end up taking on mundane tasks or filling the cracks in a broken system that the organization struggles to address.
This approach isn’t a long-term solution. Sure, some practicum students may return after graduation to work for the organization, but they simply replace another social worker who left due to burnout or for better opportunities. The systemic issues remain unresolved, swept under the rug, and the cycle continues.
This pattern reminds me of large corporations that rely on cheap temporary labor. These businesses don’t adapt, evolve, or feel pressured to improve because they exploit workers for less. While I understand that nonprofits and businesses are different, nonprofits still face similar ethical challenges. They often can’t afford to pay practicum students, even though those students do work comparable to that of paid staff.
It feels like front-line agencies have grown complacent, addicted to the free labor provided by students. And with budgets shrinking due to factors outside their control—like changes in the political climate—there’s little to no incentive to advocate for these students. When students witness staff being stressed, short-staffed, or overworked, they are even less likely to speak up about their own challenges or concerns.
The exploitation of practicum students is a topic I’ll explore in a separate post, but it ties into how social service agencies rely on social work students for support. We need to be more flexible in how we select practicum students.
Why Do I Think We Need Fewer Social Workers?
Our nonprofit organizations, particularly those focused on front-line work, need more support now than ever. At first glance, it might seem counterproductive to suggest having fewer social workers, but hear me out—this isn’t about reducing the overall capacity to help but rather rethinking how we strengthen the sector.
The core issue lies in funding and infrastructure. One way to address funding challenges is through storytelling. By sharing personal success stories—using videos, photos, and testimonials—we can better connect with donors and stakeholders, inspiring them to contribute. To make this happen, we should consider recruiting students from creative fields like:
- Creative writing and literature programs
- Media and communication studies
- Film and animation
- Journalism
- Visual arts
- Marketing and business programs
Another critical issue is the reliance on dated technology and inefficient systems, which lead to unnecessary waste and slow processes like intakes and data tracking. By modernizing systems and improving workflow, we could drastically enhance efficiency and capacity. This could involve recruiting students in fields like:
- Computer science
- Information technology (IT)
- Data science
- Mathematics and statistics
Finally, our websites and digital presence often fall short in attracting donors or helping clients easily navigate services. Updating websites and creating user-friendly platforms could have a massive impact. For this, we should look to students in fields such as:
- UX/UI design
- Cybersecurity
- Software or systems engineering
- Operations management
- Marketing and communications
Just in the areas of storytelling and technology infrastructure alone, we could recruit students from a wide variety of fields. This isn’t to suggest that we should stop bringing in social work students—they still need a place to do their practicums. However, we desperately need a system to recruit students from diverse disciplines.
Larger, well-equipped organizations already do this. They have marketing, HR, finance, and other specialized teams. But smaller organizations often lack the infrastructure to bring in students from different fields. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. We could create a system where students are given some time to develop a project proposal after they’ve familiarized themselves with the organization.
This student-led project proposal model works especially well for organizations that don’t have a structured internship or practicum program in place—something that’s particularly beneficial for smaller organizations that don’t have the bandwidth to set up a formal program or aren’t sure what specific tasks or problems they can delegate.
As long as organizations invest a bit of time in orientation and onboarding—something they already do for social work students—and allow students time to conduct a needs assessment (which becomes much easier when staff already have a list of issues they want to address), students could then propose a project tailored to their interests and skills. The staff would review the proposal, offer regular check-ins, and provide feedback.
This approach is a low-risk, low-commitment solution that’s been tested and proven in various industries. We already give social work practicum students flexibility in choosing their focus areas (unless they’re assigned to a specific project), so why not extend the same flexibility to students from other fields?
Instead of just patching up the cracks with temporary labor, why not bring in fresh perspectives from students in other disciplines? I’m not saying it will solve all of our issues, but we won’t know unless we try. It’s possible that students from other fields may not be interested in social service agencies because the work is unpaid, preferring paid internships within their own field. If that’s the case, we need to find a way to fairly compensate students.
