Engineering education — PLC and process-control training
University PLC & Process-Control Training Courses
Six hands-on training courses for engineering students — PLC ladder, TIA Portal V17, KTP700 HMI, process pressure control, modern manufacturing and cloud IoT — on S7-1200 trainer kits and a pressure-process rig.
- Role
- Training engineer — trainer kits, course material and hands-on sessions
- Company
- P.A.M Engineering & Automation
- Period
- Aug 2023 – Sep 2023
- Platforms
- Siemens S7-1200 · TIA Portal V17 · SIMATIC KTP700 · Node-RED · MQTT
Highlights
- Six courses in one programme — from ladder logic to cloud IoT
- Every student on a real S7-1200 trainer with a KTP700 panel
- Pressure-control loop taught on a real process rig, not only in software
Problem
Engineering students reach their final year knowing control theory but having never configured a PLC, drawn an HMI screen or tuned a loop on real equipment. The university wanted short, hands-on courses that would close that gap before they started work.
My role & scope
I worked on the courses while at the system integrator: preparing the trainer kits, the course material and the hands-on exercises, and helping run the sessions in the lab.
Six courses:
- PLC ladder programming
- Siemens TIA Portal V17
- HMI with the SIMATIC KTP700
- Process pressure control
- Modern manufacturing skills
- Cloud IoT
Approach
Hardware for every student
Each student works on a bench trainer — an S7-1200 PLC with a KTP700 panel, push buttons and lamps — so every exercise ends with something that actually switches.
A real loop for process control
The pressure-control course runs on a process rig with an air supply, a control valve, a pressure transmitter and a PID controller in the PLC. Students see what a badly tuned loop does to a real pressure, not just to a simulated curve.
Finish with data leaving the PLC
The last course takes PLC data to the cloud, so students see the whole chain from a sensor to a dashboard.
Delivery
- Trainer kits and the pressure rig prepared and tested before each course
- Course material and exercises for each of the six topics
- Hands-on sessions in the university’s automation lab
Result
- Students configured PLCs, built HMI screens and tuned a loop on real hardware
- A course set the university could run again with the same kits
- The start of the education work that continued in 2025 and 2026
Skills used
Siemens S7-1200, TIA Portal V17 and KTP700 · ladder logic · PID pressure control · IoT gateways and cloud dashboards · preparing hands-on training.