PLC Simulator

← For teams & institutions

For TVET & vocational colleges

Browser-Based PLC Training for TVET and Vocational College Engineering Programmes

A single Siemens S7-1200 starter kit runs into the high hundreds of dollars per student before you've added wiring panels, software licences, and maintenance contracts. Multiply by a 30-student cohort and most engineering departments will decline the capital request before the motivation is even written. The traditional one-rig-per-student model was never financially viable. There is another way.

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Join 13300+ learners practicing PLC programming

Setting up a college cohort? Create a free account, set up your team, or request institutional pricing.

The problem

Why the current model does not work for most colleges

Hardware that outlives its usefulness (but not its cost)

Rigs purchased in 2015 run outdated firmware that no longer reflects what graduates encounter in the field. Vendors move on; colleges are locked into whatever platform the purchasing committee approved eight years ago. Graduates leave with exposure to one aging platform and no ability to adapt to others.

Vendor licensing that punishes growth

Per-machine, per-seat, and per-campus licensing models were designed for industrial customers, not educational institutions growing year by year. There are no resale rights, no home-use provisions, and no practical way for students to continue practicing outside scheduled lab hours.

No remote-friendly option for hybrid programs

Load shedding, transport delays, and working students make physical lab attendance unreliable. When the lab is the only place students can access the software, any disruption to attendance equals lost practice hours with no alternative.

QCTO and NQF alignment pressure without supporting tools

Generating PoE (Portfolio of Evidence) for practical competency assessments is a manual, paper-heavy process. There is no digital activity log, no automatic timestamp trail, and no easy way to compile evidence per student for moderation. Note: the platform itself is not QCTO-accredited — it provides evidence-gathering support within your accredited program.

The solution

What the Teams plan provides for colleges

A full PLC environment in any browser, on any device

No installation, no IT involvement, no admin rights required. Works in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge on any operating system. The ladder logic editor supports contacts, coils, timers, counters, and comparison blocks to IEC 61131-3 — this is not a simplified toy, it is the same logic model students will encounter in the field.

170 scenarios mapped to real industrial contexts

Conveyor systems, traffic light sequencing, motor star-delta starters, level control, and fault detection — each scenario is named and framed around recognisable industrial equipment. That industrial framing bridges classroom theory to workplace relevance in a way that abstract ladder exercises cannot.

Learning paths and cohort progress reporting

The /team admin console lets you build a structured learning path, assign it to a cohort, and view progress at a glance. You no longer chase individual students for updates or guess who is behind before a practical assessment.

Portfolio PDF export for student assessment portfolios

Each student can export a portfolio PDF with timestamped scenario completions and their name attached. The document provides verifiable completion evidence that supports PoE compilation for NQF-aligned practical assessments.

No per-student licensing surprises

Pro seats are priced at $199 per year. Seats are reassignable — if a student withdraws mid-year, that seat moves to a replacement student. No penalty, no wasted spend, no negotiation required.

Curriculum coverage

What your students actually practice — at a glance

Unlike a slide deck or a video course, every concept below is something your TVET students build, run, and are auto-graded on in the browser — no rig, no install, no per-lab licence. This is the same IEC 61131-3 logic model they will meet on a real plant floor, mapped across the N3–N6 Industrial Electronics practical progression.

The PLC simulator running in a college lab browser — ladder editor, live simulation and auto-grader in one tab on any student device including a Chromebook, no install or admin rightsA web browser window running a PLC ladder logic simulator with an input/output strip, requiring no installation or download.plcsimulator.app/playno installINPUTSOUTPUTS
Runs in any browser on any student device — including locked-down lab PCs and Chromebooks.
PLC architecture taught in the vocational college curriculum — CPU, input modules, output modules and field devices — the foundational lesson for TVET engineering studentsA modular PLC rack on a backplane: power supply, CPU processor, input module, output module and a communications module side by side.PLC RACKbackplane busPSUPowerCPUProcessorDIInputDOOutputNETComms
Module 1 — what a PLC is: CPU, I/O modules, and the field devices they drive.
The PLC scan cycle taught to vocational college students — read inputs, execute the ladder program, update outputs, repeat — the concept that makes ladder logic make senseThe repeating PLC scan cycle: read inputs, execute the ladder logic, update outputs, then housekeeping, looping continuously.1Read Inputs2Execute Logic3Update Outputs4HousekeepingSCANCYCLE
The scan cycle — the foundation every practical assessment builds on.
A ladder logic rung in the college PLC simulator — a normally-open contact driving an output coil — written and auto-graded in the browser for TVET practical competencyA basic ladder logic rung between two power rails: an examine-if-closed contact (XIC) in series driving an output coil (OTE).L1L2] [StartXIC I:0/0LampOTE O:0/0
The first graded rung — a contact driving a coil, scored instantly.
Ladder logic symbols in the TVET PLC curriculum — normally-open and normally-closed contacts, output coils, set and reset coils — the symbol set students read and write across every scenarioThe core ladder logic symbols side by side: XIC examine-if-closed, XIO examine-if-open, OTE output energize, OTL output latch and OTU output unlatch.XICIfXIOIfOTEEnergizeLOTLLatchUOTUUnlatch
The ladder symbol set — the alphabet of every practical task.
An IEC TON on-delay timer timing chart taught in the college PLC curriculum — the instruction behind sequencing scenarios such as traffic lights and conveyor delaysA TON on-delay timer: the accumulated time bar ramps up toward the preset value, and the done (DN) bit turns on when the accumulator reaches preset.TONPRE 5000ACCACC ramps to PREPREDNdone bit
Timers (TON / TOF) — sequencing logic for star-delta and conveyor tasks.
An IEC CTU up-counter taught in the vocational college PLC curriculum — the instruction used to count parts in conveyor-sort and batching scenariosA CTU count-up counter: each input pulse increments the accumulator toward the preset, and the done (DN) bit turns on when count reaches preset.count pulsesCTUPRE 5ACC 3ACCcount toward presetDNdone bit
Counters (CTU / CTD) — part-counting for conveyor and batching scenarios.
The five IEC 61131-3 languages covered in the college PLC curriculum — Ladder, Function Block, Structured Text, SFC and Instruction List — so graduates can adapt across vendor platformsThe five IEC 61131-3 PLC programming languages as chips: Ladder Diagram, Function Block Diagram, Structured Text, Instruction List and Sequential Function Chart.IEC 61131-3 — five languagesLDLadder DiagramFBDFunction BlockSTStructured TextILInstruction ListSFCSequential Func. Chart
IEC 61131-3 breadth — the standard that transfers across every vendor.

Pilot outcomes

What a college pilot should prove

Delivery: can a learner reach an auto-graded pass on campus hardware without installing vendor software or booking a shared PLC rig?

Evidence: can lecturers use cohort progress, attempts, and exported results to identify learners who need support before practical assessment?

Pricing

Simple per-seat pricing — no lab fees

Cohort sizeAnnual costPer student / month
10 students$1,990 / yr$16.58
30 students$5,970 / yr$16.58
60 students$11,940 / yr$16.58

Pro seats are $199/seat/year on annual billing. Bulk pricing available — see full pricing →

What's included

Everything in the Teams plan

  • ✓Team admin console at /team — cohort management, member management, learning path builder
  • ✓9 PLC dialects: IEC 61131-3, Allen-Bradley, Siemens, Mitsubishi, Omron, KEYENCE KV, Schneider, Delta, Instruction List
  • ✓40+ industrial scenarios with fault-injection mode and sandbox
  • ✓55 guided learning modules + 12 quizzes
  • ✓6 interview preparation tracks
  • ✓Org-private custom scenario builder (visible only to your team)
  • ✓Cohort progress reports — see completions across a cohort at a glance
  • ✓Portfolio PDF export per student — supports PoE compilation
  • ✓Individual student logins — required for per-student reporting

How to roll it out

From pilot to full cohort in four steps

1

Trial it free yourself

Create a free account and work through the first few graded scenarios as a lecturer would. No card, no install — confirm it fits your scheme of work before involving procurement.

2

Evaluate with a small group

Set up a team at /org/signup and invite up to four learners alongside one instructor. Build a short Free-tier learning path and watch the cohort progress report populate.

3

Map evidence to your PoE

Export per-student portfolio PDFs of timestamped, name-attributed completions. Your program team decides how that evidence maps to your QCTO/NQF outcomes — the platform supplies the activity trail.

4

Scale and reassign seats

Roll out to the full cohort. When a student withdraws mid-year, reassign the seat rather than waste it. An instant quote PDF is available on the procurement page for your purchasing office.

For teams & institutions — overviewPLC simulator for universitiesPLC curriculum for educatorsPLC simulator for training centersBrowse the 170 scenario library
Questions

TVET college PLC simulator FAQ

The platform is not QCTO-accredited — your institution holds accreditation status, not the tool. What the platform does is generate timestamped, student-attributed activity records and portfolio PDFs that support your PoE compilation process. The decision on how to map platform evidence to your specific QCTO qualification outcomes sits with your program team.

Start a pilot with your next cohort.

Run a free evaluation before purchasing. Managed rollout starts at five seats, with no hardware budget required.

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Competency and practice field guide

PLC simulator for colleges: practice plan

Direct answer

The college can align simulator tasks with workshop outcomes, learner devices, instructor review and phased physical-equipment access.

Written for tVET, community-college and vocational instructors, lab managers and administrators scaling practical automation education.

adult learners and an instructor using PLC racks, laptops and a miniature process in a vocational automation lab while studying vocational college PLC lab delivery and assessment
System map / 02

NODE 01observable

Scope

Program outcomes, learner baseline, timetable, seat count, devices, connectivity, accessibility, instructor capacity, hardware, assessment and support.

NODE 02observable

Signal path

Competency through short instruction, guided run, independent changed scenario, feedback, remediation and retained rubric evidence.

NODE 03observable

Baseline practice

One motor, sequence, instrumentation and fault task completed independently and later transferred to a training panel.

NODE 04observable

Edge cases

Mixed devices, weak connectivity, large class, copied solution, language need, hardware bottleneck, lost work and inconsistent marking.

NODE 05observable

Fault practice

An access, prerequisite, concept, implementation, diagnostic, assessment, instructor or hardware-transfer gap.

NODE 06observable

Transfer to the job

Results moderated and combined with supervised workshop evidence under the college program.

Answer surface / 07

How can colleges teach PLCs with limited hardware?

Use browser simulation for scalable concepts, programs and fault cases, then rotate learners through shared panels for physical I/O, measurement, networks and commissioning.

What should a college PLC simulator support?

Prioritize curriculum mapping, low-friction access, runnable machines, changed cases, feedback, instructor evidence, accessibility, saving and a clear target-transfer boundary.

Real plc simulator for colleges footage

See this exact skill in the working simulator.

Watch the real browser product respond to the task on this page, then try the same practical workflow yourself. No slides, concept mockups, install, or credit card.

Try this in the browser
PLC Simulator for Colleges — Scalable Browser Labs and Assessment

Instructor and virtual-lab path

Connect practical work to curriculum evidence

Evaluate the learner experience, map outcomes, run a representative lab and review the evidence an instructor can retain.