40+ years of real shop-floor experience and not just textbook knowledge

Every Scantime course is designed by our team of industry-experienced engineers including David Simm, the founder and Chair of Scantime, who has been working with PLCs since 1982 and engineering since 1968. That’s over 57 years of hands-on experience!

David started his career at a time when health and safety regulations didn’t exist. He worked live on high-voltage equipment every day and learned the consequences of getting it wrong the hard way. That background is exactly why Scantime’s courses are designed first and foremost around safety.

“Dad’s been working with PLCs since 1982. That’s 43 years of experience. He saw the industry before health and safety regulations came in. That’s why he’s so strict about safety now.”

Chris Simm, Managing Director, Scantime

Our tutors aren’t just trainers. They’re time-served engineers and technicians who’ve worked on shop-floors across automotive, food and beverage, energy, and manufacturing. They know what it feels like when everyone’s staring at you and the line’s down. And they’ll make sure that feeling never happens to you again.

Hands-on training on live PLCs and no ‘Death-by-PowerPoint’

You can watch YouTube videos in your own time. What you can’t get from YouTube is the confidence that comes from working on live PLCs in a safe, pressure-free environment with an experienced engineer in the room.

At Scantime, our training rooms are fully equipped with live hardware and the latest PLC software. You’ll work on real equipment. You’ll make mistakes. You’ll work through problems. And you’ll leave knowing what to do when it matters.

“The facilities and tutors at Scantime are world class! This training has given me the knowledge and confidence to work with PLCs across our site, reducing downtime and stepping up maintenance. The classrooms are kitted out with all the best equipment in an easy-to-understand environment. 10/10 would recommend.”

George C., Trustpilot review

Our small class sizes mean there’s no chance of getting lost at the back of a room. The pace is set by the people in it. If you need to go over something again, we go over it again. No time pressure. No one to answer to but yourself.

Safety isn’t just a tick-box, it’s built into every course

PLC work is serious. The wrong move can shut down a production line, damage equipment, or in worst-case scenarios, put people at risk. Scantime doesn’t treat safety as an afterthought. It’s the foundation of everything we teach.

All Scantime courses are City & Guilds Assured or EAL Recognised, giving you, your manager, and your HR team confidence that the training you’re receiving meets a recognised industry standard.

Trusted by some of the world’s biggest names in manufacturing

Amazon. Toyota. JLR. Dyson. Aston Martin. Royal Mail. EDF Energy. Transport for London.

These organisations don’t send their engineers to us because we’re the cheapest option (we’re not…). They send them because they know their engineers will come back with skills that actually work on the shop-floor.

For managers and finance teams: the cost of doing nothing

If you’re responsible for a production facility and your engineers aren’t trained on PLCs, the numbers can be brutal. A 2024 study by RS found that the average cost of unplanned downtime is £5,471.95 per hour, with businesses experiencing an average of 15 hours of downtime per week. That’s over £82,000 in lost production… Every. Single. Week.

Every hour a line is down, you’re paying for production staff standing idle, emergency contractors, overnight couriers for parts, and the knock-on cost to your delivery commitments. Investing in PLC training isn’t a cost. It’s protection.

“The course was very well thought out and competently delivered. Our trainer was able to explain everything in a logical way which was very easy to understand. Plenty of real world examples were thrown in, which backed up the best practice methods taught. For maintenance engineers who need to work with PLCs, I would fully recommend Scantime.”

Chris T., Trustpilot review

A course for every engineer at every level

Whatever stage your engineers are at, we have a course built for them:

• IMFFP® 1&2: for engineers with little or no PLC experience. Learn to use the PLC as a fault-finding tool and get your line away with confidence.
• IMFFP® 3: for experienced engineers ready to go deeper. Covers HMIs, SCADA, networking, and advanced troubleshooting.
• Bolt-on courses: extend your skills across multiple PLC manufacturers or dive into deeper aspects of programming.
• eLearning: for engineers who need flexible online access to PLC training they can complete in their own time.
• On-site training: can’t pull your whole team off-site at once? We’ll come to you, fully equipped.

All courses are available at our training centres in Gateshead and Alderley Park, Cheshire, or on-site at your facility.

What makes Scantime different

“Without doubt, the best PLC training I have come across. I have been teaching with PLCs since 1996 across many institutions in the UK. These guys are the best. If you want PLC training, you have to use Scantime.”

Chris A., Trustpilot review

 

“The Scantime 4-day Allen-Bradley course I did with Nathan was excellent and gave me a really solid understanding of Allen-Bradley PLCs. Nathan is a great tutor—very down to earth—and he shared a lot of real-life experiences that really helped explain the concepts. I previously did the beginner course at Rockwell Automation, and this course was hands down better. I’ll definitely be coming back to do the Level 3 course with Scantime, as I learned a lot over the four days.”

Lee B., Trustpilot review

After your course, the learning doesn’t stop. Scantime provides aftercare with remote dial-in access so you can keep practising your skills on our live PLCs, cementing your knowledge and staying sharp.