If you are searching for PLC training in Germany, the first thing worth knowing is that Germans do not call it PLC. They call it SPS — *Speicherprogrammierbare Steuerung*. It is the same technology, the same IEC 61131-3 programming languages, the same Siemens hardware. Only the acronym differs.
This matters practically: almost every German job advert, training catalogue and technical datasheet uses SPS. If you search only for "PLC", you will miss most of the market.
What PLC training costs in Germany
Prices vary widely by provider type:
- Vendor training (Siemens SITRAIN, Festo Didactic): typically €1,500–€3,000 for a multi-day course, often the most expensive per day
- Independent providers: roughly €2,000–€3,000 for a comprehensive week-long programme
- Funded full-time retraining (Umschulung): can run several months and is usually free to the participant, but only through AZAV-certified providers
ED WARTENS charges €2,499 net (€2,973.81 including 19% VAT) for the five-day Professional Module. For comparison, one international provider runs a PLC course in a Munich hotel at £8,900.
A note on funding: the *Bildungsgutschein* from the Agentur für Arbeit can cover up to 100% of course fees, but only at AZAV-certified providers. ED WARTENS is not AZAV-certified, so a Bildungsgutschein cannot be used with us. Most of our participants are funded by their employer, which is standard practice in German industry.
Which controllers you will actually use
Germany is Siemens country. The market share of Siemens in German industrial automation is larger than anywhere else, and TIA Portal skills are effectively a baseline requirement in German job adverts.
Expect to work with:
- Siemens S7-1200 and S7-1500 in the TIA Portal — the default
- Siemens HMI panels and WinCC for visualisation
- Beckhoff TwinCAT — PC-based control, strong in Ostwestfalen-Lippe where Beckhoff is headquartered
- WAGO and Phoenix Contact — both German manufacturers with significant installed bases
- B&R — common in Austria and southern Germany, now part of ABB
Allen-Bradley and Rockwell appear mainly in plants owned by American groups. Schneider Electric is more common near the French border.
The labour market, in numbers
The demand is structural, not cyclical:
- Roughly 68,000 unfilled positions in electrical trades, a shortage rate around 72%
- About 38,000 open engineering roles, with automation, robotics and digital production specialists named as the hardest to fill
- 42% of the existing workforce is over 50 — a demographic cliff, not a temporary gap
- Germany runs 449 industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees, third in the world behind South Korea and Singapore
Regional concentration matters: Bavaria has roughly 12,400 open positions, North Rhine-Westphalia 11,200, Baden-Württemberg 9,800.
What you can expect to earn
Indicative gross annual salaries (Bruttojahresgehalt):
| Experience | Typical range | |---|---| | Entry level (0–2 years) | €46,000 – €52,000 | | Mid level (3–5 years) | €56,000 – €66,000 | | Senior (5–10 years) | €63,000 – €78,000 | | Principal / specialist | €72,000+ |
Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria pay roughly 9–12% above the federal average. The eastern states sit 12–15% below it, though living costs are correspondingly lower.
These are ranges compiled from public German salary aggregators. No training provider can promise a particular salary, and you should treat anyone who does with suspicion.
Do you need to speak German?
For the training itself, not necessarily — ED WARTENS delivers in-house courses in English, and this is genuinely useful for international teams and plants that run English-language documentation.
For the job market, largely yes. Most German employers expect working German for on-site automation roles, because you will be reading electrical schematics, talking to maintenance staff and writing handover documentation. B2 is a reasonable practical threshold. Exceptions exist in large international groups and in R&D roles.
Certification: what actually counts
The recognised German credentials are IHK (Chamber of Commerce) qualifications and TÜV certificates. International certifications such as CPD are valid and verifiable but carry less weight with German HR departments than they do in the UK.
Be sceptical of any provider claiming their certificate is "officially recognised" in Germany unless they can name the issuing chamber or body.
Where training happens
Germany's automation clusters are geographically concentrated:
- Munich and southern Bavaria — BMW, Siemens, MAN, Infineon
- Stuttgart — Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Bosch, Festo, plus Fraunhofer IPA
- Nuremberg — the European centre of automation technology, and home to the SPS trade fair each November
- Rhine-Ruhr — the largest contiguous industrial region in Germany
- Dresden — Silicon Saxony, Europe's biggest microelectronics cluster
ED WARTENS trains at its centre in Oberhaching, just south of Munich, and delivers in-house training at customer sites nationwide.
How to choose a provider
Ask these five questions:
- Do you train on real hardware, or only in simulation? Simulation is a useful supplement; it is not a substitute for wiring and commissioning a real controller.
- Which controller families are covered? A course that only teaches one vendor limits you.
- Who teaches it? Practising commissioning engineers teach differently from career lecturers.
- How many participants per trainer? Above roughly eight, hands-on time collapses.
- Is the certificate verifiable? You should be able to hand an employer a link that proves it.
The short version
PLC training in Germany means SPS training on Siemens hardware, costs roughly €2,000–€3,000 at an independent provider, and leads into a labour market with tens of thousands of unfilled positions and a workforce approaching retirement. Learn the term SPS, learn TIA Portal, and learn enough German to read a wiring diagram.