Simple practicum units

In a simple practicum project, the student gets on-job orientation in a workplace and perhaps implements what he/she has already learnt. A regular meeting with a supervisor is still necessary. Practicums are often done on a full-time basis, but this need not necessarily be so.

Many, perhaps nearly all, areas of professional training expect that students will do some focused learning in the workplace. Teachers, social workers and welfare workers have a long-standing practice of doing "pracs" as part of basic training. Theological students participate in Supervised Field Education (SFE) along with their studies. Pracs and SFE provide places for learners to learn from hands-on experience, guided by an experienced practitioner.

This kind of unit is useful in the vocational education sector when goals are expressed as competencies and are assessed. Simple practicums work well as part of larger units, complimenting other kinds of learning, providing orientation to a real workplace, practice preparatory to assessment, and as an assessment of practical skills learnt in the classroom.

In the past, many higher education practicums were separate units. They might have comprised on-job orientation, observation, and implementation of professional skills, but some programs asked for no more that time on the job.

Definitions of learning were traditionally expressed only as abstract goals and time totals. If they received credit at all, an hour of practicum was considered less intensive a learning experience than classroom instruction, and some universities required practicum but gave no credit for it. If students received credit, they had to put in many more hours for the same amount of credit. The requirement for a semester hour credit was somewhat arbitrary, but as a rule of thumb, it was in the vicinity of 100 hours of practicum, with the better programs often including a weekly meeting with a supervisor.