Students' Evaluation on Field Trips as a Means to Prepare Graduate Employability at a Vietnamese University

Abstract

Field trips are regarded as significant extra-curricular activities to promote students' perceptions of preparedness for graduate employability. This study explored the effectiveness and satisfaction of field trips conducted in 2020 and 2021 by a Vietnamese public university from students' assessments. A total of 1,112 students who participated in thirteen trips were split into two groups: the first group of 70 respondents for the pilot survey questionnaire and 473 respondents for the structured survey questionnaire. The five-point Likert scales were utilized for two parts of the survey questionnaire. The first part was related to students' assessment of the field trips’ organization, and the latter was designed to test seven hypotheses. The results showed that the participants highly valued preparing for the field trips and support from enterprises and the university. The scales of factors were reliable after implementing reliability analysis, and three components were extracted from the findings from Exploratory Factor Analysis. It was noticeable that motivation stimulation was the most significant predictor for the students' enjoyment of field trips, followed by identity capital and knowledge advancement. Based on the study findings, Vietnamese universities are suggested to foster relationships with enterprises to implement similar field trips for university undergraduates.