Students graduating from social work programs in Australia are expected to demonstrate a sense of identity as a professional social worker. However, conceptualising identity formation as an evidenced competency implies that it is a smooth uncomplicated process of socialisation achieved through compliance with a prescribed set of benchmarks that fit neatly with contemporary practice. It also could be argued, legitimises the impacts of political, regulatory and managerialist pressures that influence how social workers and students develop and enact their professional identities. As such we should be more concerned than ever about processes of professional identity formation and impacts on future social workers practice. Deconstructing simplistic views of how students demonstrate a professional social worker identity and reconstructing identity development through concepts of the hidden curriculum allows educators to better prepare students for their future professional roles. In doing so, we acknowledge the deeply contextualized nature of practice learning and the complex and interactive processes of identity development. We can prepare and support students more purposefully for how to engage with, challenge or resist processes of professionalisation particularly in sites of practice learning characterized by hierarchical competition and struggles for power, control and attainment of a professional status