Organizing our Local Field Trip (MFGSEMS)

TARGET AUDIENCE: Students, Students planning their own academic trip :))

EXPERIENCE: MFGSEMS was a course mandated by CHED that requires us to attend 7 company visits and 7 seminars. The seminars were easy to do as you can join any webinars currently done in the terms and make it up in your report as somewhat relevant to the course. The fields trips however required more effort to do. Here’s my experience on organizing a field trip for 13 students.

SITUATION: Here’s what happened: most of the batch decided to take their field trip overseas, with the department’s full approval and support. They had everything planned out since the previous term. For those of us who preferred to stay local, we were left with no choice but to organize our own field trip.

There were 13 of us, and we needed to find 7 local companies that could accommodate us. With the help of the department (specifically Doc Ira, who really took responsibility for us), we managed to bring that number down to 5 by counting local company visits on campus and online sessions as valid field trips. Two more companies were added to the list thanks to the original trip committee, with suggestions from batchmates Teo and Raph.

(I never got the chance to thank them back then, but THANK YOU TALAGA TT ❤️)

FINDING COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATIONS:

I have cold-called and emailed 20 manufacturing companies, organization and agencies on the south of Luzon with close proximity within Manila. I was able to narrow that down to 5 potential candidates for the field trip. Again, these were coming from favors on my end where I reached out to contacts within the industry. A very important thing to cross immediately is that if you are looking for technical field trips, government agencies should be the first thing you should consider! The NAST heritage center and DOST-based agencies, mainly in Bicutan, will happily offer field trips packages to the public and for free. Other companies are open to field trips but it will cost you.

I was able to secure the remaining 3 companies/institutions (with a +1 backup since we are already there) which were the 2 laboratory facilities of the DOST-MIRDC (AMCEN and AMERIAL), DOST-NAST and supposedly Schneider ELectric with their training facility in one of their plants upon back-and-forth discussions.

In the last minute, nagback-out both DOST-NAST and Schneider Electric due to conflicting schedules on their maintenance and plant schedule respectively. I was giving up on how we can get another company since we need one more. Doc Ira came to the rescue saying that she knows the someone in DOST-MIRDC (I believe it was a Section Director!!) and let us tour in the instrumentation and metrology lab to secure us that last company TT.

LETTERS, CLEARANCE AND TRANSPORTATION: Letters and clearances for compliance, off-campus visits, and medical requirements were a nightmare. There should be at least a one-month grace period for the letter of compliance, and at least a one-week grace period for both off-campus visits and medical requirements to submit all the necessary files. All these forms required us to state the destination of the visit — which we didn’t finalize until three weeks before, and even then, it was still uncertain.

On top of that, the documents had to be notarized, and since I was unfamiliar with the forms and handling this alone, I only managed to submit the letter of compliance two weeks before the set date of travel. I also had to rush the medical clearance so all 13 students could get it on the same day. Thankfully, the clinic expedited our request for clearance with Doc Ira as the requesting personnel.

Another concern was transportation. We were able to secure a UV van from the university through the proper channels, but that was only for a one-day event, and we couldn’t get another UV van for a trip scheduled on a different day. Thankfully, I know my way around Taft, particularly with the UV express going to Bicutan. Tinanong ko ung kuya na nangongolekta ng bayad kuny may available na UV van to accommodate us for a whole day trip scheduled for the very next day — haha, luckil meron! We agreed on a reasonable price (₱5k) to Laguna and back to Manila.

With the forms and transportation figured out, the rest of the events went smoothly, with me giving the directions for the field trip visits we had in the south. Bonus na rin ung pakain ni Doc Ira samin when we where at DOST-MIRDC. Wala un sa ginawa kong itinerary but that should be considered talaga! With these hail marys, I was able to organize and accomplish the 7 company visits required for MFGSEMS.

WHAT I COULD IMPROVE ON: I think the issue started from the very beginning, with the wrong expectations. I, at least, assumed that the department would be providing suggestions and organizing the field trip. I was completely clueless about the process, admittedly because I didn’t attend the orientation, and no one informed me of any required actions until the 3rd week of the term.

It was a roller-coaster realizing that I had to find the companies myself — and, admittedly, I selfishly took on the responsibility alone. Looking back, I know the workload could have been much lighter if I had been more transparent with the other local students taking the course and let them help earlier in the process, instead of only involving them later in the planning stage. I think this reflected a recurring theme throughout my college journey: there was often too little communication among peers.

Overall, if there is a moral lesson out of this story, it would be the following:

• Plan ahead and don’t fall into the trap of having the wrong expectations about the college department. Assume you’ll still have to do the legwork in securing companies for visits — especially if you branch out from the majority taking the class.
• Target government agencies early and secure a date for the field trip as soon as possible. Don’t hesitate to call them directly if there’s no follow-up after a week. Get it locked in ASAP since you’ll need to complete forms afterward.
• Communicate with your fellow students taking the class and coordinate on how to tackle the field trip requirements together. Thankfully, we had Doc Ira — who was super supportive and resourceful — to help us secure the 7 companies to visit. You should also ensure you have a dedicated coordinator who can guide and support the students throughout the process.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Doc Ira for taking care of us students na tumaliwas sa batch-decision on the field trip (haha); Teo, Aids for helping us in the forms and securing local companies kahit alam kong hassle :”); Lastly, Raph for providing us a company to visit, we wouldnt be able to secure all 7 companies without them!!

Shoutout also to my fellow local peeps, ykwya! hope its cool i share this here!

You may check further below the photos that I have on this event and my consolidated report I passed as per CHED requirements below.