Fill your SIWES logbook by recording the actual task, the item or process involved, your role and the outcome or learning. Use the dates and layout in your issued book, keep the record current and follow your institution's endorsement instructions. An observed task should remain an observation rather than become work you claim to have performed.
Those dated records can later support a clearer report. UniDraft helps organise the placement facts and instructions you confirm into an editable Word SIWES document. Start your SIWES report with UniDraft, or see the report workflow. You still complete the official logbook and obtain genuine endorsements yourself.
Check your issued logbook and local instructions
The ITF scheme guidance, including sections 2.6 and 4.6, assigns students responsibility for recording training activities and describes supervisor vetting and signing. The NOUN general instructions and University of Ibadan training-document guidance specify daily entries and weekly industry-supervisor endorsement for their students.
These are named examples, not evidence that every institution uses an identical book, deadline or correction process. Ask your SIWES unit which current instructions apply to you. Check the required spaces for daily activities, weekly summaries, diagrams, supervisor comments and endorsements before writing.
Use four prompts for each actual task
| Prompt | What to record |
|---|---|
| Task | What happened on the recorded date? |
| Item or process | Which permitted document, tool, system or activity was involved? |
| Role | Did you observe, assist or perform the work under stated supervision? |
| Outcome or learning | What was completed, checked, unresolved or explained to you? |
This is an original writing aid, not a mandatory institutional form. Include only the detail the record and confidentiality requirements permit. A task description is not a safety procedure or authority to operate equipment.
Avoid padding a small space with definitions of the profession. If the daily field is short, keep a concise accurate entry and retain extra permitted notes for the report. A sentence count or an impressive technical term does not establish authenticity.
Fictional daily example: make the role visible
The following material is invented for teaching. It is not a student's work, a completed logbook or a template to copy as your experience.
Suppose a fictional office task involved observing how incoming documents were indexed, then assisting with a permitted training set under supervision.
Vague: “Office work.”
More informative: “Observed the supervisor's document-indexing process. Assisted with labelling a permitted training set under supervision and checked the labels against the supplied register. Asked the supervisor to clarify one category that remained uncertain.”
The second version identifies the task and role without claiming independent responsibility or an invented numerical result. In your actual entry, use the real date and genuine records. If a task was not checked, do not turn “attempted” into “completed”.
What to write in your first week
Describe the first week you actually had. If you received induction, name the relevant content you were shown or told. If you started with observation, document that. An institution's pre-attachment orientation and a host's workplace induction are different events; neither establishes that the other occurred.
Fictional first-week planning prompts:
- Who received or supervised you, where the record permits naming them?
- Which unit or task were you assigned?
- What rules, tools or processes were explained?
- What did you observe or assist with?
- Which access restrictions or questions remained?
Do not create five copies of an “orientation” sentence or invent safety briefings, equipment issue or training certificates. An entry about observation can be specific and honest. If no relevant work is being provided, discuss the situation with your supervisor and SIWES coordinator.
Turn actual daily records into a weekly summary
Summarise the genuine activities, role and learning recorded during that week. Do not invent missing days to produce a Monday-to-Friday story when your actual shifts, holidays or absences differ.
| Actual record to check | How it helps the weekly account |
|---|---|
| Dates and assigned unit | Establishes when and where the work occurred |
| Tasks and permitted references | Shows the activities behind the summary |
| Role for each task | Separates observation from participation |
| Checked outcome or uncertainty | Prevents an unverified success claim |
| Question for further learning | Records a real unresolved issue |
Fictional weekly example, continuing the office exercise: “Observed the document-indexing workflow and assisted with labelling a training set under supervision. Compared the labels with the supplied register. One category needed clarification, which I recorded for discussion with the supervisor.”
This example supplies no real dates, attendance, quantities or findings. Your summary should be traceable to your actual entries and should not introduce a task absent from the genuine record without clarification through the required process.
Adapt the prompts to your discipline
Use your own work rather than copying a technical procedure:
- Laboratory placements: record the permitted task or record type, your role, supervision and actual observation. Do not copy specimen identifiers or present an example as a laboratory protocol. See the laboratory-science report guide.
- Computing placements: identify the permitted support task, code change or test record and the part you actually handled. Keep credentials, customer data and proprietary material out. See Computer Science logbook examples.
- Accounting or administration: identify the record or process and your genuine contribution without exposing client information. See the Accounting and business report guide.
- Engineering or built-environment placements: describe what you observed or assisted with, the permitted evidence and actual supervision. Do not interpret a writing prompt as an instruction to perform hazardous work. See the Civil Engineering report guide.
- Agriculture placements: use actual crop, field, record or process details permitted by the host. Do not invent measurements or treatments. See the Agriculture report guide.
These are record-selection prompts, not proof that any activity occurred or that every placement permits the same tasks.
Quiet weeks, mistakes and late entries
Record a genuine absence, holiday, interruption or limited observation according to your institution's instructions. Do not fill the space with invented work or assume an honest gap carries a particular mark: assessment rules vary.
For a mistaken date, omitted activity or unclear entry, gather the real evidence and ask the authorised supervisor or SIWES unit how to correct it. This guide cannot prescribe a universal erasing, rewriting or late-entry procedure. Never backdate an endorsement, add a signature yourself or invent a stamp.
Different ink or a neat page does not prove a record is false. Check factual consistency and provenance rather than judging authenticity by appearance.
Keep the logbook, SCAF, Form 8 and report distinct
| Document | Purpose to confirm with your SIWES unit |
|---|---|
| Logbook | Running record of training activities and required endorsements |
| SCAF | Commencement/attachment information under the applicable process |
| Form 8 | Separate end-of-programme report and endorsement process |
| Written SIWES report | Connected account of the real placement work and learning |
Use the dedicated Form 8 guide and SCAF guide for those tasks. Check dates and placement details across the genuine records; clarify discrepancies rather than copying an error from one form to another.
Before submission, check the evidence trail
- Entries use genuine dates, activities and roles; gaps are handled under the authorised process.
- Required endorsements are complete and genuine, on the applicable schedule.
- Confidential or identifying information is excluded or handled with the necessary permission.
- The daily record, weekly summary and later report are consistent about the work.
- Pages are legible and handled according to the issued book's rules.
- You know the submission route and deadline; retain a copy only where permitted.
To prepare the written report, use the SIWES writing guide under your confirmed instructions. UniDraft's SIWES workflow helps organise the facts you supply into an editable document with versioned corrections. Review every activity, figure and source yourself. It does not complete official logbooks, Form 8, signatures or approvals, and it cannot guarantee a grade.
Sources
- ITF scheme guidance, student and supervisor responsibilities. No current allowance or deadline is inferred from this document.
- NOUN general instructions, its daily-entry and weekly-endorsement requirements.
- University of Ibadan: commencement of industrial training, its training-document instructions; unrelated website template text is not guidance.
