How To Become A Field Instructor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a field instructor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

The field instructor plays a central role in student learning and acquisition of social work competencies. They facilitate student understanding and application of social work values, skills, and ethics. Naturally, they are licensed social workers who provide a social work student with one hour of supervision per week for the practicum duration.

Becoming a field instructor isn't that easy. There are some pre-requisites you must have to fulfill in order to achieve this role. First, you will need an MSW degree or else three years of experience after your master's degree. Additionally, it is equally important to have a social work license as required by your state where you practice.

Concerning such demanding nature of the role, the subsequent payout for the position is also quite remarkable. The average salary for a field instructor is roughly $42,465 per year, which boils down to $20.42 per hour.

ScoreField InstructorUS Average

Salary

4.1

Avg. Salary $52,928

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

4.9

Growth Rate 10%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.61%

Asian 5.15%

Black or African American 11.10%

Hispanic or Latino 13.48%

Unknown 5.76%

White 63.90%

Gender

female 49.76%

male 50.24%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress Level

4.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

5.9

Complexity Level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

10.0

Work Life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a field instructor

Explore field instructor education requirements

Most common field instructor degrees

Bachelor's

61.9 %

Master's

23.6 %

Associate

8.7 %

Start to develop specific field instructor skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	18.26%
Field Training	8.98%
CPR	7.72%
MSW	6.76%
Emotional Safety	6.35%

Complete relevant field instructor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New field instructors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a field instructor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real field instructor resumes.

Research field instructor duties and responsibilities

Develop and maintain field curriculum for BSW program.
Assist other CPP instructors in completing student orientation.
Assure TCI training and documentation meet state standards for child care facilities.
Certify CPR instructor; train and able to safely neutralize potentially violent situations.

Prepare your field instructor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your field instructor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a field instructor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Field Instructor Resume templates

Build a professional Field Instructor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Field Instructor resume.

Apply for field instructor jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a field instructor job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do field instructors rate their job?

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Field Instructor reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2020

Cons

Bad weather days that would prevent me from helping other people.