FREE LEARNING PATHS
Free Learning Paths to a Controls, Automation or Industrial AI Role: Plan a Self-Taught Route
How to plan a self-taught route into controls, SCADA or industrial AI work, using the real EDWartens learning paths, their course counts and study hours, and what joining a path does.
To plan a self-taught route into controls, automation or industrial AI work, start from the job, not the course: read ten adverts for the role you want, list the platforms and skills they name, then follow one learning path that covers them, sized to the hours you can really give each week, finishing a project in every course as proof. On EDWartens there are 19 free paths, from a 3-course route to a 13-course Siemens engineer path.
Checked 1 October 2026. Course counts and hours are the courses' own estimates on that date; software terms come from the vendors' pages listed under Sources.
Why a path beats a pile of courses
Free courses are easy to collect and hard to finish. The usual self-taught mistake is breadth: a little Siemens, a little Python, an AI course, a SCADA course, none finished, none shown. Employers in automation hire for depth in the stack their plants run, plus the basics around it (networks, HMIs, electrical drawings). A path forces that order: one platform from zero, then the things that sit next to it on a real job.
A good path also has an order of prerequisites. You cannot tune a PID loop well before you can read an analog input; you cannot judge a predictive maintenance model before you can clean sensor data in Python. The EDWartens paths list courses in the order each assumes the one before.
Which route fits the job you want?
Start with adverts. Search the job title you want in the country you want to work in, open ten adverts, and count. If seven name TIA Portal and S7-1500, that is your answer. If they name Studio 5000 and ControlLogix, it is Rockwell. If they ask for Python, OPC UA and machine learning beside a PLC, it is the industrial AI route. The job description analyser pulls the platforms, protocols and standards out of an advert for you.
Then match the role to a path:
- Siemens engineer. The Siemens engineer path is 13 courses: TIA Portal from zero, the S7-1200 tutorial series, program structure, HMI panels, organisation blocks and interrupts, PID Compact, commissioning, Factory I/O projects, the S7-300 installed base, advanced S7-1500, Safety Integrated, WinCC SCADA and LOGO!. It is the longest path, about 203 hours.
- Rockwell engineer. The Rockwell engineer path is 5 courses: RSLogix 500 for the MicroLogix and SLC base, Studio 5000 for CompactLogix and ControlLogix, the Micro800 with Connected Components Workbench, FactoryTalk Optix and HMI design with FactoryTalk View. About 95 hours.
- Maintenance or first controls job, either brand. PLC foundations is the short route: one PLC (Siemens TIA Portal), industrial communication, HMI design and control panel building. About 78 hours.
- SCADA specialist. The SCADA specialist path covers four widely installed platforms: AVEVA InTouch, Ignition, Siemens WinCC and Citect (AVEVA Plant SCADA). About 61 hours. It assumes PLC basics, so take PLC foundations first if you have none.
- Process plants, water and pharma. Process control: instrumentation, PID control, VFDs and TIA Portal.
- Industrial AI engineer. Three paths stack. AI foundations for engineers (Python on engineering data, LLM foundations, prompt engineering, agents with n8n), then Applied AI engineer (machine learning, computer vision, deep learning, RAG chatbots), then Industrial AI engineer: AI beside PLC and SCADA, predictive maintenance on run-to-failure data, machine vision inspection with YOLO, and plant data over Modbus and OPC UA in Python.
There are others, including robotics (7 courses), machine-builder PLCs, Japanese PLC platforms, IEC 61131 and software PLCs, IIoT and OT security, electrical design, power systems, building services and mechanical CAD. If you have no electrical background at all, the electrical and mechanical fundamentals path comes before any of them.
How many hours a week, and for how long?
Be honest about hours. Five a week is realistic for most people with a job: two weekday evenings of an hour and a half and two hours at the weekend. At that pace, the course estimates put the Industrial AI engineer path at about 12 weeks, the SCADA specialist path at about 13 and the Rockwell path at about 19. The Siemens engineer path is about 41 weeks at 5 hours, or 17 weeks at 12.
The free learning plan builder does this sum for you. Pick the path and 3, 5, 8 or 12 hours a week, and it lays out a week-by-week plan, course by course, from the courses' own module estimates for lessons, notes and practice. Your pace will differ: the first PLC course is always slower than the second, because you are learning the ideas and the software at once.
Two adjustments make most plans realistic:
- Cut, do not stretch. If 41 weeks is too long, take PLC foundations first (16 weeks at 5 hours) and add the Siemens specialist courses later, when a job or interview tells you which ones matter.
- Leave one week in six empty. Something always slips. A plan with no slack fails at the first busy month.
What software do you need to practise?
None of these paths needs hardware. The courses run in vendor trial or free software with simulators, and the vendors' own terms are generous:
- Rockwell: Connected Components Workbench Standard Edition is a free download and includes a demo version of the Micro800 Simulator.
- Ignition: the download is free, and in trial mode the gateway runs for two hours at a time; you can reset the trial as often as you like. Inductive University, the vendor's training, is free.
- CODESYS: the development system costs nothing and needs no licence, and includes a demo runtime.
- Siemens: TIA Portal and PLCSIM are available as a time-limited trial; our TIA Portal free trial guide explains the licences.
- AI paths: Google Colab is free to use in a browser, although Google says its resources are not guaranteed and usage limits fluctuate.
- Networking: Cisco Packet Tracer is a free download from the Cisco Networking Academy.
How does joining a path work on EDWartens?
Every path page has a Join this path, free button. Here is what it does, read from the site's code:
- Signed in: you are enrolled on the first course in the path that you do not already have, and taken straight to its first module. Rejoining a path you are partway through does not re-enrol course one.
- Not signed in: you go to sign-up with the path attached, and sign-up does the same enrolment.
- One course at a time. When you have watched half of the current course, the next course in the path is added to your account automatically (the check runs hourly). This is deliberate: a dashboard of thirteen unstarted courses reads like a to-do list you are already behind on.
- Each course stands alone. It keeps its own progress, notes, practice tasks, project and final assessment. You can also open any course in a path on its own from its page.
Certificates are per course, never per path. Each is optional, issued after you pass that course's final (15 questions from every module, pass mark 60%, three attempts, then a 24-hour wait and a fresh paper), and costs from US$2.99 for a beginner course. It is an EDWartens Certificate of Completion with a verification code, not a vendor certification.
What proof should you build along the way?
A path finished with nothing to show is a weak story in an interview. Each EDWartens course has a project brief, and most come with a sample document pack (functional design specification, I/O list, alarm list, FAT record and so on) to model your own on. Do the project in every course you take, and keep the files. Our guide to building a portfolio from course projects shows how to present them, and how long it takes to learn PLC programming gives a week-by-week view of the first course.
When you start applying, the skills gap finder shows what the role still asks for, and the automation engineer career guide and AI engineer career path cover roles and progression.
Start this week
- Read ten adverts and pick a path from the free course catalogue.
- Size it in the learning plan builder.
- Put your study slots in your calendar for the next four weeks.
- Join the path, and finish the first module before the week ends.
No card is needed; you need a free account so progress, practice and assessment attempts are saved.
Take the free course
Questions
Can you become an automation engineer self-taught?
You can learn the programming, networking and design skills self-taught, and many technicians move into controls that way. Most employers still want evidence of practical work, so pair the courses with projects you can show, and expect your first role to involve supervised site work.
Which learning path should I start with?
The one that matches the adverts in the region you want to work in. If they name Siemens, start with the Siemens engineer path or the shorter PLC foundations path; if they name Allen-Bradley, the Rockwell engineer path. If you are starting from no electrical background, take the electrical fundamentals path first.
How long does a learning path take?
It depends on the path and your hours. By the courses' own estimates, the Industrial AI engineer path is about 58 hours, roughly 12 weeks at 5 hours a week, while the 13-course Siemens engineer path is about 203 hours, roughly 41 weeks at 5 hours or 17 at 12 hours.
What happens when I join a path on EDWartens?
You are enrolled on the first course you do not already have and taken to its first module. When you have watched half of that course, the next course in the path is added to your account automatically. If you are not signed in, you go to sign-up first and the path carries through.
Do I get one certificate for a whole path?
No. Certificates are per course, issued when you pass that course's final assessment and bought only if you want them, from US$2.99 for a beginner course. They are EDWartens Certificates of Completion, not Siemens, Rockwell or other vendor certifications.
Sources
- Rockwell Automation: Design and configuration software (CCW Standard Edition free)
- Ignition User Manual 8.3: Licensing and activation (two-hour trial)
- Inductive University: About
- CODESYS Store: CODESYS Development System
- Google Colab: Frequently Asked Questions
- Cisco Networking Academy: Packet Tracer
Written by the EDWartens engineering team for general education. Product names are trademarks of their owners; mentioning them does not imply endorsement. Prices and terms of other providers were checked on the date shown and can change.
