Some lessons are best understood when students step outside the classroom and experience things for themselves. For the first-year students of Sri Aurobindo Institute of Technology (SAIT) and Sri Aurobindo Institute of Management & Science (SAIM&S), an industry visit to the Parle-G Manufacturing Plant and a heritage visit to Lal Bagh Palace, Indore, offered an opportunity to learn from two very different worlds.
Bringing together students from B.Tech, BBA, BBA (Hospital Administration), and B.Com, the visit connected academic learning with the realities of industry and the rich history of their own city.
Understanding What Goes into a Familiar Product
Parle-G is a name most of us have grown up with. It is a familiar part of everyday life, but there is much more to a packet of biscuits than what we see on a shop shelf.
The visit to the Parle-G Manufacturing Plant gave students an opportunity to look beyond the finished product and gain a closer perspective on the world of manufacturing. It encouraged them to think about the processes, planning, and coordination involved in bringing a product from a factory to consumers.
For engineering students, the industrial setting offered a connection between academic concepts and their practical applications. For students of management and commerce, it brought business operations, production, and the journey of a product to market into a more familiar context. Students of BBA (Hospital Administration) could also relate to the importance of coordination, planning, and efficient resource management across different types of organisations.
Seeing an industry up close offers a different perspective from simply reading about it. Familiar products begin to tell a bigger story, one that involves people, processes, and the many decisions that keep an organisation running.
Discovering the Heritage of Indore at Lal Bagh Palace
The second part of the visit took students from the industrial environment to one of Indore's notable historical landmarks, Lal Bagh Palace.
Known for its architecture and connection to the city's royal past, the palace offered students an opportunity to appreciate the history that forms an important part of Indore's identity. Away from their usual academic surroundings, they could engage with the city's heritage in a more direct and meaningful way.
For students who are still getting to know college life and the world around them, visits to historical places can open up new interests and perspectives. They offer a chance to appreciate the stories behind familiar landmarks and understand how a city's past continues to shape its present.
Indore is widely recognised for its growing educational, commercial, and industrial landscape. Places such as Lal Bagh Palace offer a reminder of another side of the city, one rooted in history, culture, and architectural heritage.
Two Different Experiences, More Ways to Learn
A manufacturing plant and a historical palace may seem like very different destinations, but both offered students something valuable.
At Parle-G, the focus was on industry and the processes behind a familiar consumer product. At Lal Bagh Palace, attention shifted to history, architecture, and the heritage of Indore.
For students from SAIT and SAIM&S, these experiences provided an opportunity to look beyond their respective subjects and see how much there is to learn from the world around them. Sharing the visit with students from different academic programmes also brought different perspectives into the experience.
Such outings are particularly meaningful during the first year of college, when students are beginning to explore their interests, understand their chosen fields, and discover how their studies connect with life beyond campus.
Taking the Learning Back to Campus
The value of an educational visit lies in the perspective students carry back with them.
A visit to a manufacturing plant can change how they think about an everyday product. Exploring a historic palace can give them a deeper appreciation of the city they live in. Both experiences encourage curiosity, observation, and a willingness to learn from places and people beyond the classroom.
For the first-year students of SAIT and SAIM&S, the visit to the Parle-G Manufacturing Plant and Lal Bagh Palace was an opportunity to experience industry and heritage as part of their educational journey.
At the end of the day, learning does not happen in just one place. Sometimes it happens by observing how an industry works. Sometimes it happens while exploring a piece of history. And often, it is these experiences that help students see their subjects, their surroundings, and their future with a little more understanding.