PLC Training Online vs Classroom: Which Should You Choose?

In the choice of PLC training online vs classroom, online wins for learning to program, because simulators run the same logic a real controller does. Classroom training earns its cost for what only hardware teaches: wiring, field devices, commissioning and real fault finding. The best route for most people is online first, then hands-on time.

What a simulator teaches just as well

Modern PLC software includes simulators that execute your program the way the controller would. TIA Portal has PLCSIM, Rockwell's free Connected Components Workbench Standard Edition includes a demo version of its Micro800 simulator, and the free CODESYS Development System runs a soft PLC on your PC. With them you can learn:

• every programming language and instruction set
• the scan cycle, timers, counters and data blocks
• structured program design with functions and function blocks
• HMI screens connected to the simulated controller
• online monitoring, forcing and modifying values
• analogue scaling and PID, against a simulated process

In this lesson by Instrumentation Tools, a Siemens program is run in simulation inside TIA Portal, which shows how much of the programming side you can practise with no controller on the desk.

Add a 3D simulated machine, such as Factory I/O, and you can build and test whole conveyor and sorting programs with sensors and actuators that behave realistically. That is virtual commissioning, and it is how many integrators now test logic before site. For the free options, see free PLC simulators compared.

What only hardware teaches

Some skills do not transfer from a screen:

• Wiring. Sinking and sourcing inputs, common terminals, fuses, relays and interposing contacts. A diagram is not the same as a screwdriver and a ferrule.
• Field devices. A proximity sensor with a damaged cable, a 4 to 20 mA transmitter reading 3.8 mA, a drive with the wrong parameter.
• Commissioning. Downloading to a real controller, setting IP addresses and device names, checking every I/O point against the drawings.
• Fault finding with a meter. A simulator never has a loose wire. Real plants often do.

If your target job is maintenance, service or commissioning, you need these. If it is office-based programming or software, you need them less, but some exposure still helps.

PLC training online vs classroom, side by side

Honest downsides of each

Online asks for discipline. Nobody notices if you skip a week, and it is easy to watch videos without doing the practice. You also get less help when you are stuck, so choose a course with written notes and practice tasks, not only videos, and actually do the tasks.

Classroom is only as good as the hardware time you get. A lab that sounds large may still mean four people watching one person type. Short courses also move at the group's pace, which is too fast for some learners and too slow for others. And the cost is not only the fee: travel, accommodation and days off work add up.

A combined route that works

1. Learn to program online, free or cheaply. Get fluent on a simulator in one platform: ladder, timers, counters, function blocks, an HMI. Our guide to how long it takes to learn PLC programming gives a week-by-week plan.
2. Build one complete simulated project. A conveyor or sorting cell in Factory I/O, documented, with a short video. This is your evidence.
3. Get cheap real I/O if you can. An OpenPLC build on a Raspberry Pi or Arduino, or a small used controller with a few switches and lamps, teaches the wiring basics for little money. See OpenPLC on a Raspberry Pi or Arduino.
4. Then pay for hands-on time, if your job needs it. Arriving already able to program means a classroom course spends its days on wiring, commissioning and faults, which is what you are paying for.

This order also protects you from spending money on a format before you know you enjoy the work.

How to judge a classroom course before you book

Ask for the hardware list and the ratio of learners to rigs. Ask what share of the course is hands-on and what you will wire yourself. Ask whether you will fault-find on deliberately broken rigs. A good provider answers these quickly and specifically. Our wider guide on how to choose a PLC training provider has the full list of questions.

The courses on edwartens.com are the online, self-paced side. Pair them with hands-on time wherever you can get it: your own workplace, a college lab, or a vendor's instructor-led course.

Getting the most from online study

Online study fails for the same few reasons, and each has a simple fix.

• Watching instead of doing. Pause every lesson and build the thing yourself before the presenter does. If you cannot, rewatch that part only.
• No fixed time. Book two or three evenings a week in your calendar, the same way you would book a class. Short, regular sessions beat one long weekend.
• Getting stuck alone. Write down exactly what you expected and what happened. Half the time, writing it down finds the error. If not, the written notes and a search of the vendor's own forum usually will.
• No proof at the end. Keep every practice program in a folder with a line on what it does. By the end of a course you have a portfolio, not just a completion.
• Simulating only the happy path. Break your own programs on purpose: a sensor that sticks on, a motor that never reports running. Designing for faults is what separates a programmer from a commissioning engineer.

How to judge an online course

• Does it include written notes and practice tasks, or only videos?
• Does it use a simulator you can install, so you practise rather than watch?
• Is there an assessment that tests understanding across the whole course?
• If there is a certificate, who issues it and can an employer check it?

Start online, free

Siemens TIA Portal takes you from zero to a working program on a simulated S7-1200, and TIA Portal with Factory I/O adds a 3D machine to commission against. Allen-Bradley Micro800 with CCW is the Rockwell equivalent, and OpenPLC on Arduino and Raspberry Pi is the cheapest way to real I/O. Every course is free to learn in full, with video lessons by independent creators, written notes, practice tasks and one final assessment. If you pass and want the optional EDWartens Certificate of Completion, it is a small one-off fee, US$8.99 for a beginner course. It is verifiable at edwartens.com/verification and is not a vendor certification.

Take the free course

Free

PLC programming · Beginner · Free

Siemens TIA Portal

Free

PLC programming · Beginner · Free

Siemens TIA Portal with Factory I/O: Virtual Commissioning Projects

Free

PLC programming · Beginner · Free

Allen-Bradley Micro800 with Connected Components Workbench

Free

PLC programming · Beginner · Free

OpenPLC: IEC 61131-3 on Arduino, ESP32 and Raspberry Pi