Festo & WorldSkills

WorldSkills is a not for profit association open to agencies or bodies which have a responsibility for promoting vocational education and training in their respective countries/regions. Every two years young people from across the world gather to compete in a variety of vocational skills competitions.

Since the introduction of Mechatronics in 1991 as one of the 40 plus competition skills Festo has sponsored this event.

Real world skills
The Mechatronics competiton reflects reality on the shop floor – people working under pressure to design,
implement solutions, maintain and constantly improve production and fix machines quickly when faults occur. Competitors enter as teams of two, reflecting the philosophy that only people working in a team – constantly
learning from each other – can master the challenges of manufacturing excellence.

London 2011
With strong support from the Government, the Mayor of London, business and individuals, London won its bid to host the 41st WorldSkills Competition, in 2011 providing young people with an ideal opportunity to raise standards in manufacturing and showcase vocational excellence.

Attracting young talent
Gary Wyles, Managing Director of Festo GB believes “London 2011 will help raise awareness of the challenges facing UK based manufacturing industry. We now have three years to build momentum and attract the young talent into engineering that the UK needs in order to be competitve in world markets.”