PLC STUDY PLAN
How Long Does It Take to Learn PLC Programming? A Week-by-Week Plan
Real hour counts from a 22-module Siemens course, and a six-week evenings plan built around the 21-day TIA Portal trial.
How long does it take to learn PLC programming? To a working beginner level, about 30 hours: roughly 13 hours of video plus notes and practice. Over weekday evenings, that is about six weeks. Being trusted with a live machine takes longer, because that comes from projects and commissioning rather than lessons.
Where the numbers come from
We did not guess these figures. They come from our own Siemens TIA Portal course, which takes a complete beginner to a working, simulated S7-1200 program.
- 22 modules, 60 video lessons. The lessons add up to 12.9 hours of video.
- About 30 hours in total. Each module has written notes and a practice task, and the study plan estimates time for reading and practising, not just watching. Summed across the modules, it comes to a little under 30 hours.
- The longest module is the capstone, a project that pulls everything together, at about three hours.
Other routes are shorter or longer. Siemens TIA Portal in Three Hours has 3.3 hours of video and is a good way to find out whether you like the work before committing to more. TIA Portal: Build a Machine, the natural next step, adds 6.5 hours of video and a complete machine project.
The six-week evenings plan
The plan has one constraint you cannot ignore. Siemens' TIA Portal trial lasts 21 days, and Siemens' installation notes say the trial licence can be activated only once. So the plan does the modules that need no software first, spends three weeks in TIA Portal, then uses the last two weeks for work that needs no licence.
Week 1: before any software (about 3.5 hours)
Modules 1 to 3: what automation is, what is inside a PLC, the scan cycle, 24 V DC wiring and the difference between sinking and sourcing inputs. None of this needs software. At the weekend, register with Siemens and download the trial files. The V21 setup image is 8.1 GB and PLCSIM is another 2.5 GB, so do not leave it to the evening you want to start.
Week 2: into TIA Portal (about 75 minutes a night)
Install TIA Portal and PLCSIM, and activate the trial when you open it for module 4. Then modules 4 to 10: the Siemens range and TIA Portal, your first project and hardware configuration, addressing, simulation in PLCSIM, contacts and coils, logic gates in ladder form, and latching and interlocks. By the end of the week you should be able to write a start/stop circuit from memory.
Week 3: timers, counters and decisions (about 65 minutes a night)
Modules 11 to 16: your first multi-rung program, timers (TON, TOF, TP and TONR), counters, set and reset with edge detection, comparators and maths. This is where ladder logic starts to feel like controlling a machine rather than lighting a lamp.
Week 4: structure and a finished project (about 75 minutes a night)
Modules 17 to 22: moving and converting data, scaling a 4-20 mA analog signal, program control, functions and function blocks, your first HMI screen, and the capstone. Before the trial ends, archive the project and take screenshots of it running. You will want them for your portfolio.
Week 5: assessment and write-up (3 to 4 hours)
The final assessment does not need the software. It is 15 questions drawn from the whole course, with a 60% pass mark. Go back over any module that felt shaky first. Then write a one-page description of your capstone: what it does, its inputs and outputs, and one fault you found and fixed.
Week 6: a second platform, no time limit (3 to 4 hours)
Rebuild your start/stop circuit, a timer sequence and a counter in a second environment. CODESYS is a good choice, because its development system is free from the CODESYS Store and needs no licence. Seeing the same logic in a second editor is the quickest way to find out what you understood and what you only copied.
If three weeks of nightly sessions is more than you can manage, do week 1, then take the shorter three-hour course inside the trial and come back to the full course when you have a clear month.
What one evening looks like
Seventy-five minutes goes further than it sounds if you use it the same way every night:
- Ten minutes: read the module notes before you press play, so you know what the lesson is trying to show you.
- Thirty to forty minutes: watch and build. Keep TIA Portal open next to the video and build each rung as it appears, pausing as often as you need.
- Twenty minutes: the practice task. Every module ends with one. Do it without the video, then check it in PLCSIM.
- Five minutes: write one line in a notebook about what went wrong tonight and how you fixed it. By week 4 that notebook is the best revision guide you own.
Missed an evening? Do not try to double up the next night. Push the plan back a day. If you are inside the trial, drop the rewatching rather than the practice tasks: the practice is what you will remember.
Signs you are ready to move on
At the end of week 4, you should be able to do these without looking anything up:
- Create a project, add an S7-1200 and get a program running in PLCSIM.
- Write a start/stop circuit with a seal-in and explain why the stop button is wired normally closed.
- Use an on-delay timer and a counter together to control a simple sequence.
- Scale a 4-20 mA input to a reading in engineering units.
If one of these is shaky, spend week 5 on it before the final assessment.
Is PLC hard to learn?
The logic is not. A ladder rung is a row of conditions that switch an output, and the start/stop circuit, the first pattern everyone learns, is a single rung. What takes effort is everything around the logic: knowing how a sensor is wired, why a stop button is wired normally closed, what the scan cycle does to timing, and how to read someone else's program. All of that is learnable, but it comes from practice rather than from watching.
If you have no electrical background, that is fine. The first three modules of the TIA Portal course exist for exactly that reason.
Can I learn PLC on my own?
Yes, up to a working beginner level, and without hardware. A simulator such as PLCSIM runs your program on your laptop, and you switch simulated inputs on and off to test it. What self-study cannot easily give you is a real panel: wiring a sensor, finding a loose terminal, commissioning a machine with people waiting. If you want that later, our regional sites run classroom training with hardware in India (edwartens.co.in), the UK (edwartens.co.uk), Germany (edwartens.de) and the UAE (edwartens.biz).
Three habits make self-study work:
- Type every rung yourself. Do not just watch. Pause the lesson, build it, run it.
- Break your own programs. Change one contact and predict what will happen before you test it.
- Keep one project file and add to it every week, so at the end you have one program that does something.
How long until I am job-ready?
That is a different question, and nobody can give you an honest number of hours for it. Six weeks gets you the fundamentals on one platform. After that, what makes the difference is a second platform, a complete machine project, commissioning and fault-finding practice, and being able to explain your own work clearly. The PLC foundations path groups the next courses: industrial communication, HMI design and control panel design.
Start this week
Week 1 needs nothing but a free account. Open Siemens TIA Portal and start module 1 tonight; it is free in full, including the final assessment. If you pass and want a certificate, it is optional and costs from US$2.99 for a beginner course; checkout shows your price. It is an EDWartens Certificate of Completion with a verification code, not a Siemens qualification.
Take the free course
Questions
How many hours does it take to learn PLC programming?
About 30 hours to a working beginner level on one platform, based on our Siemens TIA Portal course: 12.9 hours of video plus notes and practice tasks. Being ready to work on real machines takes longer and depends on projects and hands-on practice.
Can I learn PLC programming in a week?
In a week you can learn what a PLC is, how it is wired and how its scan cycle works. Timers, counters, analog scaling and program structure need a few more weeks of regular practice.
Is PLC hard to learn without an electrical background?
No. The ladder logic itself is simple; the harder part is wiring ideas such as 24 V DC and sinking versus sourcing inputs, which our TIA Portal course teaches in its first three modules before any software is opened.
Can I learn PLC on my own without hardware?
Yes. Simulators such as S7-PLCSIM run your program on a laptop and let you switch inputs on and off, and every exercise in our Siemens TIA Portal course runs in simulation.
What happens when the 21-day TIA Portal trial runs out?
Siemens' installation notes say the trial licence can be activated once and expires after 21 days, after which TIA Portal only runs with restrictions. Plan the software-heavy weeks inside the trial, and use a free tool such as CODESYS for practice afterwards.
Sources
- Siemens: STEP 7, S7-PLCSIM and WinCC V21 trial download
- Siemens: STEP 7 and WinCC V20 installation notes (trial licence)
- CODESYS Store: CODESYS Development System
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.
