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.
Field Instructor Overview
Field Instructor Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a field instructor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.01 an hour? That's $43,700 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 27,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Field Instructor Do
There are certain skills that many field instructors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, compassion and listening skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a field instructor, we found that a lot of resumes listed 9.4% of field instructors included crisis intervention, while 9.3% of resumes included emergency, and 8.0% of resumes included cpr. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the field instructor job title. But what industry to start with? Most field instructors actually find jobs in the education and health care industries.
How To Become a Field Instructor
If you're interested in becoming a field instructor, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 40.2% of field instructors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 38.1% of field instructors have master's degrees. Even though most field instructors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a field instructor. When we researched the most common majors for a field instructor, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on field instructor resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a field instructor. In fact, many field instructor jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many field instructors also have previous career experience in roles such as social worker or social work internship.
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Field Instructor Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of instructor you might progress to a role such as consultant eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title program manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Field Instructor
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Northwest Regional School District Field Instructor Field Instructor | Northwest Regional School District Northwest Regional School District | 12/24/2019 12/24/2019 | $27,13112/24/2019 $27,131 |
NYC Outward Bound Schools Field Instructor Field Instructor | NYC Outward Bound Schools NYC Outward Bound Schools | 08/09/2019 08/09/2019 | $56,34908/09/2019 $56,349 |
Northwest Regional School District Field Instructor Field Instructor | Northwest Regional School District Northwest Regional School District | 08/07/2019 08/07/2019 | $27,13108/07/2019 $27,131 |
NYC Outward Bound Schools Field Instructor Field Instructor | NYC Outward Bound Schools NYC Outward Bound Schools | 08/01/2019 08/01/2019 | $58,39408/01/2019 $58,394 |
Multnomah Education Service Field Instructor Field Instructor | Multnomah Education Service Multnomah Education Service | 06/05/2019 06/05/2019 | $27,43206/05/2019 $27,432 |
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Top Colleges for Field Instructors
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
3. University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA • Public
4. University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA • Public
5. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
6. Washington University in St Louis
Saint Louis, MO • Private
7. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
8. North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC • Public
9. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
10. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Public
Top Skills For a Field Instructor
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 9.4% of field instructors listed crisis intervention on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and compassion are important as well.
- Crisis Intervention, 9.4%
- Emergency, 9.3%
- CPR, 8.0%
- MSW, 6.9%
- Emotional Safety, 6.5%
- Other Skills, 59.9% See All Field Instructor Skills
Best States For a Field Instructor
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a field instructor. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Jersey. Field instructors make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $65,676. Whereas in Massachusetts and Vermont, they would average $58,252 and $52,844, respectively. While field instructors would only make an average of $52,427 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Hawaii
$65,676
Avg. Salary
2. Vermont
$52,844
Avg. Salary
3. Massachusetts
$58,252
Avg. Salary