Delayed exposure of learners to real manufacturing environments tend to affect their understanding of abstract concepts during teaching and learning. This is because they would not be having the end goal of what they are learning in mind. This paper explores the role of industrial visits in learners in the Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) in industrial engineering in order to identify the impact that the industrial visits have on the learners’ performance. This is done in order to build a case for the need of a learning factory at universities. The population in this study consisted of learners in the zeroth and first year of the ECP for the Diploma in Industrial Engineering at a university in South Africa. An industrial visit was organised to a foundry shop that specialises in investment casting for the two groups. Questionnaires were administered to both groups to collect their experiences. After the visit, the learners were able to recall and understand the investment casting process, they felt that they were now enlightened on the various roles industrial engineers could play in an investment casting factory. The results from the learners’ experiences show that although 62.5% learners had been industry before, all the learners would be willing to partake in industrial visits again, more frequently, indicating an unsoothed appetite for visits. Thus, the need for a learning factory that is accessible without much protocol. This study provides an important contribution to the department’s efforts to build a learning factory in the future.