I began writing the following simply as a comment on Stephen's and Allen's replies. But then, I realized that this situation is exactly what most PLC-Programmer Wanna-Be's are up against.
CATCH-22
"How do you get experience if they won't let you work unless you've had experience?"
It's much like one of the more common problems in programming...
You can define the repeatitive loop in a process. Getting out of the loop is usually not that difficult. But how do you get into the loop to begin with?
That particular problem has to be solved in terms of the particular process - there is no universal answer.
And so it is when trying to resolve this CATCH-22 issue...
BTW, this issue does not go away simply because you've had your first experience and might actually be programming. Many Experienced Programmers go through the whole CATCH-22 thing all over again when they try to move to processes that are very different from the processes they have been working with. Programming Automatic Pickle Slicers does not necessarily mean that you can program complicated Chemical Processes.
So, on with our story...
Seems to me that Stephen's solution is more to the point... at least, as far as the original request goes.
You can "play" with those pretend-applications. It gives a certain amount of freedom to do what you want to do. The only pressure you might feel would probaly be self-imposed and determined by your school schedule.
That's a "comfortable" solution. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with that approach at all.
Allen's solution is less-comfortable and more-stressful. But, the rewards of that solution can be huge! You get REAL WORLD Experience, REAL WORLD Head-aches, REAL WORLD Situation-Solving Experience, maybe a few REAL WORLD Ulcers...
But, at the end... you'll end up with a system you can point to and say... "I MADE THIS!!!" Hopefully, it would end up being something you really could be proud of! That would be a huge confidence-builder!
That would give you the impetus to continue on with other projects. At some point, you'll probably look back at your original project and think... Jeez, I sure could have done that a heck of a lot better with what I know now! "Getting Better", that's what it's all about!
Now, the real hard part of this idea is to find some place that would be willing to take a chance on you. You have to "Sell Yourself".
Be sure to be realistic in terms of what you really think you can do - start small. Small successes will give you more confidence, and will also give the guy that gave you the chance a reason to feel more confident in you.