Effect of Field Trips on Agripreneurship Knowledge and Skills Development among Students in Tertiary. Agripreneurship and Field Trips

Scientific Study from the year 2023 in the subject Education - Educational Tests & Measurements, , course: Agricultural Extension and Management, language: English, abstract: This study investigated the effects of field trips on agricultural knowledge and entrepreneurship skills of students at Federal College of Agriculture, Ishiagu, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Four research questions and three hypotheses were postulated. Experimental design method was adopted and Yamane method of sample selection was used to obtain a sample size of 200 respondents from a total population of 518 Students for the experimental and control groups. A structured questionnaire was used to administer questions burdening on exposure of students to modern methods of Agriculture, acquisition of Entrepreneurship skills, retention and the utilization of skills learnt after field trips. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed the following, that: there was a significant difference in the mean scores between the experimental and control groups (p-value = 0.00, < = 0.05) on the exposure of students to modern methods of Agriculture; acquisition of Agricultural entrepreneurship skills was statistically significant ( p = 0.01, < = 0.05) and the difference between the mean score of the groups on retention ability of the students after field trips was also statistically significant. (p-value = 0.00). Hence, the study concluded that field trips broaden and expose participating students to modern methods of agriculture, enhances entrepreneurship skills and contributes to retention and utilization of knowledge and skills learnt during the visits. Therefore, fieldtrip was a contributing factor in increasing agricultural knowledge and entrepreneurship skills among students in tertiary institutions. It was recommended that field trips be funded and implemented by Government and institutions' managements to enhance students' creativity, innovativeness and prepare them as solution providers for the world of work.