FREE SCADA TRAINING
Free SCADA Courses With Certificate: Ignition, WinCC and AVEVA Compared
Which free SCADA course gives you a certificate worth having? Inductive University wins for Ignition; for WinCC, InTouch and Citect, here is where to learn free and what each certificate really is.
The best free SCADA course with certificate depends on the platform. For Ignition, Inductive University is free and awards a free Ignition credential. For Siemens WinCC, AVEVA InTouch and Citect (now AVEVA Plant SCADA), EDWartens runs complete free courses in the vendors' trial software, with an optional paid certificate after a final assessment.
Checked 26 September 2026. Prices and trial terms below come from each vendor's own pages on that date, listed under Sources.
What "with certificate" actually means
Three very different things are sold or given away under the word certificate, and it helps to know which one you are getting.
- A vendor credential from free training. Inductive University gives one for Ignition when you finish its credential courses. It proves you completed the vendor's own training.
- A vendor certification exam. A proctored or timed test you pay for, such as Ignition Core or Gold certification. This is the strongest proof of skill for that platform.
- A course completion certificate from a third party. The EDWartens Certificate of Completion is this kind. It proves you passed a 15-question final assessment drawn from the whole course, and anyone can check its code at edwartens.com/verification. It is not a vendor certification and it is not accredited.
Employers who hire SCADA engineers mostly want to see that you can build something. Whichever certificate you choose, pair it with one finished project you can show on a laptop.
What a complete SCADA course should cover
Before comparing providers, it helps to know what "complete" means. A SCADA course that stops at drawing a tank on a screen leaves out most of the job. Look for these topics, whatever the platform:
- Tags and data types, including scaling a raw value to engineering units and reading tag quality.
- Device connections: OPC UA, and at least one PLC protocol such as Modbus TCP or the vendor's own driver.
- Graphics and navigation: a plant overview, detail screens, faceplates and a consistent way to move between them.
- Alarms: priorities, acknowledgement, shelving and an alarm history an engineer can search.
- History and trends: logging to a historian or SQL database and showing it as a trend an operator can zoom.
- Scripting: small, readable scripts for the jobs the built-in tools cannot do.
- Security and users: who can see a screen, who can change a setpoint, and an audit trail.
- Clients and deployment: how operator stations, web clients and remote sites connect, and what happens when the network drops.
All four EDWartens SCADA courses below cover this list in their own platform's terms, and Inductive University covers it for Ignition.
Ignition: start at Inductive University
For Ignition, Inductive University is the right first stop, and it is better than anything else on this list for that one platform. Inductive Automation states that it is 100% free for anyone. When you pass all the challenges in the credential courses, you receive an Ignition credential. The credential is tied to a particular Ignition version, so to stay current you complete the challenges for new or updated courses.
Ignition certification is separate. Inductive Automation sells certification tests and says an Inductive University credential is not required to sit one, although it recommends the courses as preparation.
The software side is just as open. The Ignition download is free, and in trial mode the gateway runs for two hours at a time; you can restart the trial as often as you like. Ignition Maker Edition is also free, for personal and educational use only, with a limit of 10,000 tags and Perspective as its only visualisation module. Businesses cannot use Maker Edition.
Where the EDWartens Ignition course fits
The free Ignition SCADA course is not a replacement for Inductive University. It is a project-shaped second pass: lessons from Inductive Automation's own channel and independent creators, strung together around a batching station project, with written notes, a practice task per module and one final assessment. Use it after the credential if you want a structured project with SQL history, reports, MQTT and deployment, or if you learn better from one project than from many short videos.
Siemens WinCC
Siemens plants still run WinCC V7 and V8, and new projects increasingly use WinCC Unified inside TIA Portal. Siemens offers a free 21-day trial of WinCC Unified engineering and runtime simulation through SiePortal, and a longer 180-day trial for customers enrolled in its Unified Academy.
If you want to learn free, the Siemens WinCC SCADA course covers V7, Unified and WinCC Advanced, with PLCSIM supplying the process data so no PLC is needed. It is an intermediate course: learn PLC basics first, ideally through the free Siemens TIA Portal course on free PLC training.
AVEVA InTouch and Citect (AVEVA Plant SCADA)
Much of the installed base in water, power and process plants is AVEVA: InTouch HMI (formerly Wonderware) and Plant SCADA (formerly Citect SCADA).
- InTouch HMI. AVEVA offers a free trial, and its trial page highlights a free WindowMaker development environment. The page does not state a trial length, so check the terms when you register.
- Plant SCADA. AVEVA's documentation says Plant SCADA runs without a hardware key in demo mode. There are two modes: 15 minutes with up to 50,000 real I/O or calculated variables, or 10 hours with one dynamic real I/O or calculated variable. The 10-hour mode is enough for practising graphics, alarms and trends with memory and disk tags.
The free Wonderware InTouch SCADA course takes you from an empty application to a tag database, an animated mimic, alarms, trends, scripts and a PLC link against a simulator. The free Citect and AVEVA Plant SCADA course does the same on Plant SCADA, with Modbus and OPC simulators providing data.
If your plants run Rockwell, there is also a free FactoryTalk View SE course that uses Logix Emulate for tags.
How to choose
Pick the platform before you pick the course. Look at five job posts for the role you want in the region you want to work in, and count which SCADA they name. Then:
- No preference yet? Start with Ignition. The software and the vendor training cost nothing, and the ideas (tags, alarms, history, screens, clients) carry to every other SCADA.
- Targeting Siemens plants? WinCC, after TIA Portal basics.
- Targeting utilities, water or oil and gas? InTouch and Plant SCADA are worth the time, because that is what is running there.
Here is a plan that works for most learners.
Build one project you can show
A certificate says you finished a course. A project shows you can do the work, and it gives you something to talk about in an interview. A good first SCADA project is small, complete and realistic:
- A tank farm or a batching station with two or three tanks, inlet and outlet valves and a pump, driven by a simulator or a PLCSIM program.
- An overview screen and one detail screen per tank, with levels in engineering units and valve states that are obvious at a glance.
- Three alarms (high level, low level, pump failed to start) with priorities and acknowledgement.
- History of level and flow logged every few seconds, with a trend on screen.
- A one-page shift report built from the logged data.
Record a two-minute screen video of it running, and keep the project file. It fits comfortably inside the free trials above if you plan your time, and it is the same shape as the batching station project in the free Ignition course.
Free PLC SCADA courses: learn both halves
A SCADA engineer who cannot read the PLC program behind a screen spends a lot of time guessing. If you are searching for a free PLC SCADA course, take them as a pair: one PLC course from free PLC training, then one SCADA course. Every EDWartens course runs in vendor trial or free software with simulators, so no hardware is needed for either.
The SCADA specialist path groups InTouch, Ignition, WinCC and Citect in one place, and the free SCADA courses page lists every SCADA course with its level.
What it costs to learn and to certify
Learning is free in full on EDWartens: video lessons from independent YouTube creators (credited on every course page), written notes with worked examples, a practice task per module and one final assessment. The final assessment has 15 questions drawn from the whole course, a 60% pass mark and three attempts, then a 24-hour wait and a fresh paper. You need a free account so your progress is saved. No card, no trial.
The only paid item is the optional EDWartens Certificate of Completion. It is a small one-off fee that follows the course level, and checkout shows your price:
| Course | Level | Certificate |
|---|---|---|
| Ignition SCADA | Beginner | Optional, from US$2.99 |
| Wonderware InTouch SCADA | Beginner | Optional, from US$2.99 |
| Citect and AVEVA Plant SCADA | Beginner | Optional, from US$2.99 |
| Siemens WinCC SCADA | Intermediate | Optional, small fee |
The certificate carries a unique code and a QR code that anyone can check at edwartens.com/verification. It is not a Siemens, AVEVA or Inductive Automation certification, and it is not a university or government qualification.
Start now
- For Ignition, go to Inductive University first, then use the free Ignition SCADA course for a full project.
- For Siemens, AVEVA or Rockwell SCADA, start the matching free course from the SCADA catalogue.
- Create a free account so your progress and assessment attempts are saved.
Take the free course
Questions
Is there a free SCADA course with a free certificate?
Yes, for Ignition. Inductive University is free, and passing the challenges in its credential courses earns a free Ignition credential. For other platforms, the courses on EDWartens are free and the certificate is an optional paid item.
Is the Inductive University credential the same as Ignition certification?
No. The credential comes from completing the free Inductive University courses. Ignition certification is a separate test that you purchase, and Inductive Automation says the credential is not required to take it.
Which SCADA should I learn first?
Ignition, because the software runs free in trial mode and the vendor training is free. Then learn the platform your target plants use: WinCC for Siemens sites, InTouch or Citect for utilities and process plants that run AVEVA.
Can I practise WinCC or InTouch without buying a licence?
Yes. Siemens offers a 21-day trial of WinCC Unified engineering and runtime simulation, and AVEVA offers an InTouch HMI trial with a free development environment. AVEVA Plant SCADA also runs in a demo mode without a hardware key.
Is the EDWartens SCADA certificate a Siemens or AVEVA certificate?
No. It is an EDWartens Certificate of Completion, issued after you pass the course's final assessment and checkable by code at edwartens.com/verification. It is not a vendor certification and is not accredited.
Sources
- Inductive University: About and FAQ
- Inductive University home page
- Inductive Automation: Training classes and certification
- Inductive Automation: Ignition downloads
- Inductive Automation: Ignition Maker Edition
- Siemens: SIMATIC WinCC Unified Engineering
- AVEVA: InTouch HMI trial
- AVEVA Plant SCADA documentation: Demo Mode
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.
