PLC Classes Online — Free, Self-Paced
18 structured lessons, 130 auto-graded machine scenarios, and a certificate of completion — the same disciplined structure as a semester college class, none of the fixed schedule.
Join 800+ learners practicing PLC programming
Format
Self-paced PLC classes vs cohort classes
Community college and vocational school PLC classes meet on a fixed timetable — two or three evenings per week for a semester. That structure works if your job, family, and geography align with the schedule and location. For everyone else, self-paced online classes are the practical alternative.
Community college / TVET class
Advantages
- Physical hardware — wire a real PLC in lab time
- Instructor face time for debugging help
- Structured accountability — grades, deadlines
- Accredited qualification in some cases
Limitations
- Fixed schedule — misses are unrecoverable
- Geographic restriction — must commute to campus
- Cost: $800–$3,000 per course
- Pace matches the slowest student, not you
This platform (self-paced online)
Advantages
- Start at any time — no cohort to wait for
- Go faster or slower than a class group
- Free to start — no financial risk to try
- Available anywhere with a browser
Limitations
- No physical hardware — simulation only
- No instructor (but grader gives failure reasons)
- Self-discipline required — no external deadlines
- Not a regionally accredited qualification
The best outcome is usually both: build programming fundamentals in self-paced online classes here, then apply for a lab-based course or apprenticeship once you can demonstrate the basics to an instructor.
Curriculum
What the PLC classes cover
Four modules sequenced from first principles to industrial application. Each module is prerequisite to the next — the same sequencing a well-run classroom course uses.
PLC Fundamentals
8–12 hrs- What is a PLC — scan cycle, I/O, CPU
- Contacts and coils — ladder logic from relay diagrams
- Latching and sealing-in — SET/RESET, three-wire circuit
- Timers — TON, TOF, TP, retentive timers
- Counters — CTU, CTD, CTUD and bit outputs
- State machines — encoding states in ladder without spaghetti
Core Building Blocks
8–12 hrs- Function blocks — instance data, input/output pins
- Structured Text — IF/ELSIF, CASE, FOR, alongside ladder
- Analog I/O and scaling — raw counts to engineering units
- Sequential Function Charts — steps, transitions, divergence
- Shift registers — part tracking on conveyors
- Debugging and monitoring — force bits, online edit
Industrial Applications
10–16 hrs- Motor control patterns — start/stop, forward/reverse, star-delta
- Process control — PID loops, cascade, ratio
- Alarm management — latch, acknowledge, reset (ISA-18.2)
- Safety systems — E-stop circuits, SIL concepts, light curtains
- Communications — Modbus TCP register maps, OPC-UA concepts
- Code organisation — task structure, FB libraries, naming
Machine Scenarios
40–80 hrs- 130 auto-graded scenarios: conveyors, tanks, batch, elevators, packaging
- Wiring labs — 19 physical wiring exercises with virtual multimeter
- VFD scenarios — drive control, speed references, fault handling
- Safety scenarios — E-stop, guard door, light curtain interlocks
- HMI track — operator screen building with live PLC tag binding
Electrical engineers
PLC classes for electrical engineers
Electrical engineers and electricians are the fastest-learning group in these classes. The reason is simple: ladder logic was invented to look like relay diagrams. If you have wired a three-wire motor circuit with a seal-in contact, you have already built the mental model for a ladder rung. The first module makes that connection explicit.
The PLC fundamentals module covers the relay-to-ladder translation step-by-step: normally-open contacts, normally-closed contacts, coils, and the seal-in branch all have direct counterparts in the relay logic you already know. Most electrical engineers complete Module 1 in a single weekend session.
Where electrical engineers typically need more time: understanding the scan cycle's implications for edge-triggered logic, working with timer and counter accumulators as data values, and writing state-machine sequencers. These are covered in Module 1 lessons 4–6 and practised in the first ten scenarios.
Also on this platform
Related training pages
- PLC training — the full curriculum with hour counts, comparison table, and three-dialect support.
- PLC SCADA course — course-intent framing with curriculum table, cert, and cost vs institutes.
- SCADA training — what SCADA roles need and an honest scope of what we teach.
- Allen-Bradley training — for electricians in Rockwell-heavy plants.
- Free PLC training — everything that is genuinely free on this platform.
Start PLC classes free — right now.
No schedule. No cohort. No credit card. Module 1 opens the moment you register.