2025 marks the 60th anniversary of Festo Didactic, a proud member of the Festo Group—celebrating 100 years of innovation this year. Over the past six decades, we’ve supported educators and industries around the world with trusted, future-ready learning solutions—driven by our unique combination of didactic and industrial expertise.
Global reach, local impact
As industries evolve, so do we. Our strategy embraces digitalization, sustainability, and electrification to empower schools and training centers in delivering excellence—from initial to lifelong learning. With teams and projects across the globe, we speak your language and bring decades of experience to help make learning successful, drive innovation, and increase employability—at every scale—in your communities.
From a single lecture to a global leader
The historical photo below captures a hands-on training session in the 1960s. In 1957, Kurt Stoll gave a groundbreaking lecture on “Introduction to Pneumatics” to 200 engineers in Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany. His textbook, A Short Introduction to Pneumatics, followed in 1965—marking the founding of Festo Didactic. Since then, we’ve evolved from print to advanced, integrated learning systems in automation, electrical engineering, and beyond.
Along the way, we’ve built strong partnerships that reflect our commitment to advancing education globally. Festo Didactic—and Lab-Volt Systems, which became part of Festo Didactic in 2014—have long supported the Worlddidac Association as active members, helping foster collaboration and innovation across the global education community.
Championing hands-on, industry-integrated learning
The second photo shows an apprentice at a lathe in our Rohrbach training workshop in the 1970s. Rooted in the dual education model, our hands-on approach ensures students graduate with the skills employers truly need. From early pneumatic trainers to today’s cutting-edge digital and automation systems, our commitment to bridging the gap between education and industry has never wavered.
What’s next? Let’s shape the future together.
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About Festo
Festo is a global player and an independent family-owned company with headquarters in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. The company supplies pneumatic and electrical automation technology to 300,000 customers of factory and process automation in over 35 industries. With about 20,600 employees in over 250 branch offices in around 60 countries worldwide, Festo achieved a turnover of around €3.65 billion in 2023. Festo Didactic SE is a leading provider of technical education and training and offers its customers worldwide comprehensive digital and physical learning solutions in the industrial environment.
Article Submitted by
Maren Gülck
Festo SE & Co. KG
Germany
