Students, especially those involved in studying engineering, computer science and similar disciplines, often have to take part in the so-called industrial visits – they are expected to visit an industrial plant, see it in action and prepare a report about this event.
Unfortunately, they are rarely given coherent instructions as to how it is supposed to be done. Here we will clarify this point a bit.
First of all, you should understand that, as a rule, you are not expected to provide any fantastic insights into the inner workings of the plant you’ve visited. You should simply tell how it all went. In most cases, you will be given instructions as to how you are supposed to organize your report – which means that if you have any questions concerning the formatting, you should address them to your college. However, most reports are organized as follows:
Title page
Project name, your name and status, name and status of the person you submit your report to, college name, plant name, date and place of the visit.
Introduction
Here you write the preliminary information about the event – who proposed and organized it, full designation of the facility you’ve visited and the name of your college and department. Don’t forget to mention the names and positions of people who played an important part in organizing and implementing the event, faculty members who accompanied the students and total number of people that took part in it, both students and faculty members.
Details of Journey/Work Plan
Here you provide the timeline of the visit, enumerating, point by point, every part of your journey. Where and when you started, where and when you attended seminars and other events accompanying the visit, what industries and facilities you’ve visited, when the event ended and when you got back. No details are necessary; you simply give a short report of your actions and movements.
Detailed Descriptions
In this section you describe the more significant stages of your visit in greater detail. If you attended seminars, you mention when and where they took place, how long they lasted, who conducted them, what they were about, what you’ve learned, and your general impressions.
If you visited particular facilities, you enumerate them and their locations, mention staff members accompanying you during the visit, what new information you got in the process and your impressions about the visit.
Travel Details
This part contains mostly technical and statistical information: names of the faculty members accompanying you and other students taking part in the visit, where you stayed and with whose help the entire thing was organized.
Students’ Feedback
Finally, students are supposed to give their generalized opinion of the entire event: whether it was useful or not, whether the plant’s staff was helpful and supportive, whether you got any particular new knowledge and experiences from it and so on. Complete it by mentioning who took part in preparing this report.
In general, there is nothing particularly hard about preparing an industrial visit report. You don’t have to think anything up – just make sure to follow your college’s guidelines and mention everything of note.
