Get hands-on experience with Structured Text, the programming language increasingly found on modern machines. You’ll learn to read and understand SCL programs confidently, recognising common programming patterns, data types, and control structures without needing to write code from scratch.

Start with the fundamentals of SCL syntax and work through real-world programming patterns step by step, from basic assignments and Boolean logic through to loops, arrays, and structures. Every concept is taught with practical exercises on live PLC hardware, building your confidence to navigate SCL programs during fault-finding.

• Understanding when and why SCL is used instead of Ladder Logic, and recognising it in live programs.
• Working with data types, variables, and naming conventions: reading programs that use BOOL, INT, REAL, TIME, and STRING values.
• Reading IF/THEN/ELSE, CASE statements, and loop structures (FOR, WHILE, REPEAT) — the building blocks of every SCL program you’ll encounter.
• Understanding arrays, structures, and User-Defined Types (UDTs): how modern programs organise large amounts of data.
• Using type casting and conversions to understand how data moves between different formats.
• Applying TIA Portal troubleshooting tools to SCL programs, online monitoring, watch tables, cross-references, and breakpoints.

Focussings on PLC and network security, an increasingly critical topic as OT networks become more connected. You’ll explore real-world cyber incidents that targeted industrial control systems and learn how Siemens security features protect your plant.

• Understanding why OT security matters through real-world incidents including Stuxnet, the Ukraine power grid attack, TRITON/TRISIS, and the Oldsmar water treatment breach.
• Configuring CPU access and protection levels: password tiers, know-how protection, and copy protection.
• Understanding TIA Portal project protection: what each protection mechanism does and how it affects your ability to fault-find.
• Working with user management and role-based access to control who can connect, read, and modify PLC programs.
• Understanding PROFINET security considerations and network segmentation: why flat networks are a risk and how to recognise and report a security incident.

The afternoon moves into advanced diagnostics, building on the diagnostic skills from IMFFP® 1&2 with deeper techniques.

• Reading the diagnostic buffer in depth: understanding event classes, fault cascades, and working backwards to find root cause.
• Understanding hardware interrupts: what triggers them, how OB40 works, and what to check when interrupts cause unexpected behaviour.
• Using the Trace function: TIA Portal’s built-in signal recorder for capturing intermittent faults, with practical trigger configuration and result interpretation.

PID controllers: understanding how closed-loop control works and how to monitor, tune, and diagnose PID loops in TIA Portal.

• Understanding PID theory (Proportional, Integral, Derivative) and where PID control is used in industry, temperature, pressure, flow, and level control.
• Working with PID_Compact, PID_3Step, and PID_Temp instructions and their technology objects.
• Using the commissioning panel and auto-tuning to observe and adjust loop performance.
• Reading loop response shapes, rise time, overshoot, and settling time and diagnosing common PID faults using the ErrorBits reference.

Data handling and recipe management: how modern machines organise, store, and switch between production parameters.

• Understanding complex data types: Structures, Arrays, and User-Defined Types (UDTs) and how they’re used to organise machine data.
• Working with Data Blocks: Global DBs, Instance DBs, and the critical difference between Retain and Non-Retain settings.
• Building a complete recipe management system from scratch, UDT, recipe bank, active recipe, and selection logic.
• Using MOVE and MOVE_BLK instructions for transferring data between blocks.
• Understanding data logging basics: writing process data to CSV on a SIMATIC memory card.

This day also introduces working with Siemens project and global libraries: understanding how reusable blocks, templates, and standard functions are stored, managed, and deployed across projects and sites.

Communications to third-party devices, communicating the protocols you’ll encounter when Siemens PLCs need to talk to non-Siemens equipment.

• Understanding the industrial communication landscape: Serial, Fieldbus, and Industrial Ethernet protocols and where each fits.
• Configuring PROFINET with third-party devices: installing GSDML files, assigning device names, mapping IO addresses, and verifying communication.
• Working with GSD and GSDML files: where to find them, how to install them, and what they contain.
• Understanding IO mapping and the process image: how input and output data flows between the PLC and field devices.
• Configuring and commissioning Servo/Drives, including maintaining these systems and understanding encoder feedback.
• Applying a systematic diagnostic approach to communication faults, LEDs, Accessible Devices, Module Diagnostics, and the diagnostic buffer.

We offer weekly courses at our training centres in Gateshead and Alderley Park. Demand is high, so we advise booking your place at least two months in advance to secure your spot.

Absolutely! Our courses are open to everyone, whether you’re sponsored by a company or joining as an individual. They’re especially popular with people looking to switch careers or enhance their CV with new skills.

When you join one of our training courses, you’ll have your own dedicated training station complete with a computer, PLC, HMI, Remote IO, programming software, and a SCADA system.

You’ll also receive a Scantime workbook to track your progress throughout the course. This detailed resource is yours to keep, making it an excellent reference tool long after training is complete.

Yes, the course includes two assessments, one at the half-way mark of the course and the second at the end of the course, designed to ensure you’ve understood the material. You’ll receive your results on the same day after completing each assessment.

Pass Marks and Points Available:

• Module 4 – 1st Asssessment
  • Pass Mark: 120
  • Points Available: 150

• Module 4 – 2nd Assessment
  • Pass Mark: 120
  • Points Available: 150

Absolutely. We’ll give you a City & Guilds certificate, and a digital credential when you successfully complete any of our IMFFP® course modules.