Why WAGO have joined our Partner Program

If you work with WAGO PLC’s in your business, you already know what these controllers can do. What you might not know is that getting your engineers trained on them and the wider CODESYS concepts just got a lot easier.

Scantime is now an WAGO’s official training partner. That means if your company already has an account with WAGO, you can book our expert-led PLC training courses directly through them, without needing to set up a separate account with us. One supplier. One purchase order. No extra paperwork.

But this partnership isn’t just about convenience. It’s about making sure that the engineers who rely on WAGO hardware every day have access to hands-on training that’s built around the latest WAGO equipment, software, and industry developments.

The problem we keep seeing

Every week, engineers walk into our training rooms and tell us the same story. They’ve been handed responsibility for a PLC they’ve never been trained on. The line’s gone down, everyone’s looking at them, and they don’t know where to start.

According to Sumitomo Drive Technologies, equipment failures account for approximately 42% of all unplanned downtime, and the average manufacturer faces around 800 hours of downtime per year. That’s not a small number. And when your engineers don’t have the skills to get online and fault-find with confidence, those hours add up fast.

It gets worse when you look at the bigger picture. Make UK’s Industrial Strategy Skills Commission Report found 55,000 long-term unfilled vacancies in UK manufacturing, costing the economy £6 billion in lost output every year. One in five UK manufacturing workers is now over 55. When those experienced engineers retire, they take decades of knowledge with them.

This is the reality we hear about every single day. And it’s exactly why we’ve been so deliberate about who we partner with.

Why WAGO?

We don’t partner with manufacturers for the sake of it. We already deliver training across Siemens, Allen-Bradley, Omron, Mitsubishi, Schneider, and WAGO, but a formal partnership is a different thing entirely. It means we’re working directly with WAGO to make sure our training reflects the latest hardware, the latest CODESYS software, and the trends that are shaping the future of industrial automation.

WAGO has been at the forefront of modular automation for over 60 years. Their PFC200 series controllers and CODESYS-based programming environment are used across manufacturing, energy, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and building automation. As more shop-floors adopt WAGO hardware, we want to make sure your engineers aren’t left behind.

For us, this partnership means three things. First, our training rigs and course content stay current with the latest WAGO equipment and software versions. Second, we get early insight into what’s changing in the industry, so we can build that into our courses before your engineers need it on the shop-floor. And third, if your company already buys from WAGO, you can now access Scantime’s full WAGO training catalogue through them directly.

“For WAGO, competence is everything. By building the confidence and credibility of our customers and partners through high quality training, we enable them to deliver more projects in a more sustainable and efficient way. Partnering with Scantime is a brilliant fit due to their independence and their deep knowledge across a wide range of automation platforms—not least their strong expertise in CODESYS and the WAGO PLC platform.”

John Mackey, Head of Automation, WAGO UK and Ireland

What this means for your engineers

Our WAGO x CODESYS courses are designed for maintenance engineers, controls technicians, and anyone who’s expected to fault-find and maintain WAGO PLCs on a day-to-day basis.

Every delegate gets their own training station with a PC, PLC programming software, and a SCADA system. You’ll work on live WAGO PLCs, not simulations, because the only way to build real confidence is to get your hands on the real thing.

Our IMFFP® 1&2 course for WAGO x CODESYS covers the essentials: how to get online, how to read the program, how to fault-find, and how to get the line away. If your shop-floor already runs a different PLC and you’ve completed a 4-day IMFFP® course with us, our 2-day Bolt-on course lets you add WAGO x CODESYS skills without starting from scratch. That saves your company time and money, and it means your engineers can handle multiple PLCs across different lines.

“In one week, you’ll gain a wealth of knowledge. It’s a safe place to play around with the software and have someone show you what’s what instead of watching YouTube videos in your own time that may not be right, or even applicable to your shop-floor.”

Nathan Ramsahai

All courses are City & Guilds Assured. When your engineers complete the course, they leave with a recognised qualification and a digital credential they can share with employers and colleagues.

What this means for managers

If you’re a maintenance manager, engineering manager, or plant manager, you already know what unplanned downtime costs. ABB’s Value of Reliability Report, based on a survey of 3,200 plant maintenance leaders, found that two-thirds of companies experience unplanned downtime at least once per month, at an average cost of £92,000 per hour.

The question isn’t whether you can afford to train your engineers. It’s whether you can afford not to.

78% of manufacturers are experiencing productivity losses directly attributed to skills gaps, according to Make UK. And 81% of UK managers say most technical expertise sits with older employees, making their departure a critical risk to operations. If only one or two people on your team know how to work with the WAGO PLCs on your shop-floor, that’s a risk you can manage now, before it becomes an emergency.

“Senior and middle managers are starting to realise that to get less downtime and to get their production figures through the roof, their maintenance teams need to be PLC trained. The more maintenance engineers that have this skillset, the better it is for the business.”

David Simm, Chair, Scantime

By investing in WAGO PLC training through Scantime, you’re not just ticking a compliance box. You’re building real capability in your team. You’re reducing your reliance on expensive contractors. And you’re keeping knowledge in-house, where it belongs.

“We are truly excited about what this partnership represents and how we can collaborate to bring more engineers across the UK up to speed with future industrial automation trends, the CODESYS platform, and the wide range of applications that can be addressed using our WAGO PLC and automation portfolio.”

John Mackey

How the partnership works in practice

If your company already has an account with WAGO, you can now book Scantime’s WAGO x CODESYS training courses through them. That means one purchase order, one supplier relationship, and no additional account setup on your end. For procurement and finance teams, that’s one less hoop to jump through.

If you’d prefer to book directly with Scantime, you can absolutely still do that. The partnership gives you options. It doesn’t take any away.

We run weekly courses at our training centres in Gateshead and Alderley Park. Demand is high, so we’d recommend booking at least 2 months in advance to secure your place. We also offer on-site training if you’d rather we come to you.

Built on 40 years of shop-floor experience

Scantime was founded by David Simm, a time-served controls engineer who’s been working with PLCs since 1982. He built his first computer from scratch, taught himself machine code in 1973, and went on to write PLC programs for Procter & Gamble, Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, Honda, and Toyota USA. Every Scantime course is designed from that foundation of real-world engineering experience.

Today, the business is led by myself and our team of industry-experienced tutors. We’ve trained engineers at Amazon, EDF Nuclear, Transport for London, and many more. We know what it takes to get engineers confident on the shop-floor because we’ve been on the shop-floor ourselves.

This WAGO partnership is part of how we keep pushing forward. We want to make sure that when you send your engineers to Scantime, they’re working with the latest equipment, the latest software, and the most relevant training content available.

“The training room’s a safe space to practice your skills. You can build your confidence and skills with no pressure to get it right first time.”

Nathan Ramsahai