SIWES, the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme, has been run by the Industrial Training Fund since 1973. At the end of your placement you hand in a technical report, and many departments then hold a defence where you present it to a panel. Your department's SIWES coordinator decides the exact format, so their instructions win over anything here. If you haven't been given any, ask, and look at one or two reports from the set ahead of you.

This is the structure most departments use, with notes on what each part is for.

Download the SIWES report template (Word). It has every section below already laid out, with headings set up so the table of contents fills itself in. Replace the grey notes with your own writing.

Start from your logbook

Your logbook is the raw material for the report, so read through it before you write anything.

Go through every entry and mark what kind of work it was. After a few weeks of entries you'll see the same tasks coming back: maybe installing and repairing computers, setting up a network, teaching a class, or entering records into a database. Each of those becomes a section of chapter three.

Note the tools, software and equipment you used, and anything your supervisor taught you or corrected. Those details are what make a report sound like your own placement and not someone else's.

If your logbook has gaps or unsigned weeks, sort that out with your industry-based supervisor now. A panel that finds a logbook which doesn't match the report will ask why.

The preliminary pages

These come before chapter one and are numbered in roman numerals (i, ii, iii).

  • Title page. "A report on the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES)", the name and address of the organisation, the dates of your placement, your name, matric number and department, and the month and year of submission.
  • Certification page. Where your SIWES supervisor and head of department sign.
  • Dedication and acknowledgements. Keep them short. Thank your industry-based supervisor and the people you worked with by name.
  • Abstract. One paragraph: where you were, what the organisation does, what you worked on, and what you learnt. Write it last.
  • Table of contents.

Chapter one: introduction

Chapter one introduces SIWES itself and your report.

Explain briefly what SIWES is, when and why it was set up, and its objectives, such as giving students practical experience they can't get in a lecture hall and preparing them for work after graduation. Name the bodies involved: the ITF, the National Universities Commission, your university and the employer.

Then say what your own placement was meant to achieve and what the rest of the report covers. Two or three pages is enough. This is the chapter examiners care about least, so don't spend your best effort here.

Chapter two: the organisation

Chapter two describes where you did your placement.

Cover the organisation's history, what it does, and its vision and mission if it has them. Include its structure, ideally as a simple organogram, and say what each department or unit is responsible for. End with the unit you were posted to and who you reported to.

If you take material from the company's website or brochure, put it in your own words and cite it. Panels recognise copied company profiles, especially when several students went to the same place.

Chapter three: work done and experience gained

This is the most important chapter and should be the longest.

Organise it by the kinds of work you did, not as a diary. Use the groups you found in your logbook, give each its own section, and for each one explain what the task was, how you did it, and what tools or equipment you used. Add diagrams, screenshots or photos where they help, with a caption under each.

Be specific. "I learnt networking" tells the examiner nothing. "I crimped Cat 6 cables, configured IP addresses on the office's twelve computers and traced a fault to a damaged switch port" shows you were there.

Most departments also want you to say how the work relates to your course. Connect each kind of work to the courses that prepared you for it, or the ones it would have helped you in.

Chapter four: challenges and how you handled them

Describe the real problems you met during the placement. Common ones are transport and distance, being given little to do at first, equipment that wasn't available, and tasks you hadn't been taught. For each one, say what you did about it.

Be honest but fair to the organisation. The aim is to show what you learnt from the problem, not to complain about your employer.

Chapter five: summary, conclusion and recommendations

Summary. A short recap of the placement and the main things you did.

Conclusion. What the experience gave you and whether SIWES met its objectives in your case.

Recommendations. Practical suggestions aimed at the people who can act on them: the ITF, your university, the organisation and future students. "Students should start looking for a placement early" is useful. "The government should do more" is not.

References and appendices

Cite any books, websites or documents you used, usually in APA style, and be consistent. Put supporting material in the appendices: photos of your work, sample documents you produced, and anything else your coordinator asks for. Don't include photos of other people or company documents without permission.

The defence

At a SIWES defence you usually present your report briefly, often with slides, and then answer questions from a panel of lecturers. The details vary by department, so check how long you have to present and whether slides are expected.

Keep the slides simple, eight to ten is plenty: the organisation, your unit, the main kinds of work you did with a photo or diagram for each, the challenges, and your recommendations. Don't paste paragraphs from the report onto the slides.

These are the questions panels ask most often:

  • What does the organisation do, and which unit were you in?
  • Walk us through one task you did, step by step.
  • What is this tool, term or diagram in your report, and how does it work?
  • How does what you did relate to your course?
  • What was the biggest problem you faced, and what did you do about it?
  • What would you do differently if you went back?

Every one of them is easy if you did the work and wrote the report yourself, and hard if you didn't. Read your report the night before, especially chapter three, so you can explain anything in it.

On the day, take your signed logbook, copies of your report and any forms your SIWES unit gave you, plus your ID card. Dress as you would for work, arrive early, and answer the question you were asked. If you don't know something, say so and say what you do know, which goes down better than guessing.

If your final year project is next, see how to structure a final year project, chapter by chapter.