History

We’ve been changing lives since 1958

STS stands for Student Travel Schools and since the beginning in 1958, over a million young adventurers have had the chance to see new places, explore new cultures, and learn new languages with us. In that time, they have made new friends all over the world, tackled personal challenges, recovered from sunburns, shared tears of joy, and survived emotional farewells. But above all: they have done so while learning about new cultures and getting a feel for a global society. So how did we end up here?

The first language trip took a small group of Swedish youth to Mattsee, Austria. Together, they enjoyed a few summertime weeks and practiced their German. The trip was a success and the next year, over 600 students traveled to England. Soon, over 2,000 students were going on language trips with STS every year. The rapid growth allowed us to expand our selection to new areas over the years.

We are now active in 12 countries and send thousands of young students to 20 countries around the world every year on high school exchanges, building bridges between people. We need a future in which good communication, an understanding of diversity, and a sense of connection to all of humanity are crucial for peace, prosperity, and progress.

STS Education is now owned by Educatius, but was formerly a family business. Today, we are focusing on our core program: high school exchanges. We believe that this is the program that can offer the most advantages to young people today. We believe that experience-based learning is the best way to grow, mature, be challenged, and improve self-confidence.

A few important milestones

In our 65 years, we have carried out several changes and a lot of growth. We have evolved with time and adapted our products and services to an increasingly international world. Here are some of the most important milestones in STS’ history.