Impact of Social Practice Activities on the Employability of College Students: The Mediating Effect of Learning Experience and the Regulating Effect of Professional Interest

While social practice activities are crucial for enhancing the employability of college students, the specific pathways and mechanisms underlying their influence remain inadequately understood. Grounded in Astin’s theory of student involvement, this study aimed to investigate the impact of participation in social practice activities and associated learning experiences on college graduates’ employability and to examine the moderating role of professional interest in this relationship. A retrospective survey of 687 undergraduate graduates from four Chinese agricultural universities was conducted. The data were analyzed using moderated regression analysis to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings revealed that professional interest significantly moderates the relationship between social practice participation and employability. Specifically, the positive effect of participation on professional competence development is strengthened by higher professional interest levels. Moreover, a similar moderating effect was observed for general abilities but was significant only when professional interest was high. This study demonstrates that professional interest is a critical contingent factor that amplifies the benefits of social practice activities for employability development. The results highlight that the transformative potential of experiential learning is most fully realized when students possess a strong intrinsic interest in their field of study. This study contributes to the literature by extending Astin’s theory regarding the domain of employability and identifying key boundary conditions. Practically, these findings suggest that higher education institutions should prioritize fostering students’ professional interest and design more precise, differentiated support systems that integrate interest cultivation with experiential learning opportunities to maximize graduate employability outcomes.