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Career28. Juli 20269 min read

PLC Training in Munich: What to Know Before You Book

PLC TrainingMunichMünchenSPSBavaria
By ED WARTENS

Munich has one of the highest concentrations of automation employers in Europe, and Bavaria alone accounts for roughly 12,400 unfilled positions in electrical and automation trades — more than any other German state.

If you are looking for PLC training in Munich, note first that the local term is SPS-Schulung. Searching in German will surface considerably more options.

Who is hiring in the Munich area

The employer base is unusually diverse for a single metro region:

  • BMW — the Milbertshofen plant, plus Dingolfing and Regensburg within commuting distance
  • Siemens — one of the company's most important global locations
  • MAN Truck & Bus — commercial vehicle production
  • Infineon — semiconductor fabrication in Neubiberg and Regensburg
  • Linde — process plant and industrial gases
  • Krauss-Maffei — plastics and rubber machinery
  • KUKA in nearby Augsburg — one of the world's leading robot manufacturers
  • Audi in Ingolstadt, about 45 minutes north — among the most robot-dense plants in Europe

That mix matters when choosing training. A Munich engineer might move between automotive body-in-white, semiconductor cleanroom automation and process plant without relocating — but only with vendor-neutral skills.

What it costs

Expect roughly €2,000–€3,000 for a comprehensive week-long course from an independent provider in the Munich area. Siemens SITRAIN and Festo Didactic sit at the upper end. One international provider runs a PLC course at a Munich hotel for £8,900, which is well outside the local norm.

ED WARTENS charges €2,499 net (€2,973.81 incl. 19% VAT) for the five-day Professional Module at our Oberhaching centre.

We are not AZAV-certified, so a Bildungsgutschein cannot be applied to our courses. Employer funding is the normal route for our participants.

Getting to Oberhaching

Our training centre is in Oberhaching, roughly 15 km south of the city centre:

  • S-Bahn S3 direct from Munich Hauptbahnhof, about 20 minutes
  • A8 and A995 by car, with parking on site
  • Munich Airport about 50 minutes via S8 and S3

Practical for anyone in the Munich area, and reachable as a day trip from Augsburg, Ingolstadt, Rosenheim and Landshut.

What Munich employers actually ask for

Reviewing automation job adverts in the region, the recurring requirements are:

  • Siemens TIA Portal — near-universal. S7-1500 specifically, increasingly over S7-300
  • WinCC for visualisation
  • PROFINET / PROFIBUS diagnostics — named far more often than people expect
  • Safety to DIN EN ISO 13849, particularly in automotive
  • Robot interfacing — you are rarely asked to program the robot, but you are expected to integrate it with the line controller

In the semiconductor plants around Munich and Regensburg, availability and alarm management matter more than raw programming speed. A single unplanned stop in a fab is expensive in six figures.

German or English?

Training can be delivered in either — ED WARTENS runs in-house courses in English, which suits international teams and plants documenting in English.

For employment in the Munich region, working German is usually expected for on-site roles. The exception is large international employers and R&D functions, where English-first teams are common.

Choosing between the options

Munich has vendor training (Siemens, Festo), university and Fachhochschule programmes, funded full-time retraining through AZAV providers, and independent short courses.

The right choice depends on your situation:

  • Already employed, need a specific skill → a short intensive course, employer-funded
  • Unemployed, seeking a full career change → an AZAV provider, where the Bildungsgutschein applies
  • Company needs a whole team trained → in-house training on your own equipment
  • Working only with Siemens, deep dive needed → vendor training

There is no single best answer, and any provider claiming otherwise is selling rather than advising.

The short version

Munich combines automotive, semiconductor, process and robotics employers in one commutable region, with more open automation positions than any other German state. Learn TIA Portal, learn the term SPS, and pick training that puts you in front of real hardware rather than only a simulator.

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