Most colleges make it a point to organise field trips for the students. Whether it is an industrial outing for engineering students or a visit to a place of cultural importance for students of history, the value that the field trip holds can vary. Metrolife speaks to some college students to know what they think about such trips.

For Suhas Pathalam, a student of RV College of Engineering, all the industrial visits, which his college takes the students for, are both helpful and interesting. “We get to see whatever we learn being implemented in our daily lives.

For example, we had once gone to a sub-station, where we saw the working of switchgears and protective devices like circuit breakers and relays. It helped us understand that subject better because we actually saw the mechanics behind it. In a lot of ways, these trips help us in understanding the course better,” he shares, adding that at his college, it is part of the curriculum to have these visits at least once every semester.

Since the importance of these visits differs from field to field, there is no measure to compare their values. For instance, while a visit to a photography studio is worthwhile for a student of fashion designing, a visit to an industrial plant would probably only interest an engineering student.

“In today’s scenario, industrial visits help us adapt to the changing needs of the organisations we may one day get into. They also help us understand and analyse the system, culture and behaviour of that particular organisation. I believe it will help me in developing and designing the strategies, which I will use at some point of time in the industry,” says Zeeshan Khateeb, a student of CMRIT.

For others, a field trip is just like a picnic and a time to get out of classes.

“I don’t see the point of taking initiatives to have certain field trips because half the time, the students don’t care. Personally, I don’t see how one can learn if you’re told to go and just ‘explore’,” confesses Abhay, a student of CMS Jain College.