The Federal Institute of São Paulo (Portuguese: Instituto Federal de São Paulo, IFSP), or in full: Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo (Portuguese: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo) is a multi campuses pluri-curricula higher and professional education institution.

Its current specialization span from vocational and technological education in different areas of knowledge, such as Mathematics, the Natural Sciences, the Social and Human Sciences, Teaching, The Arts, Engineering, Computing, so on and so forth.

IFSP is one of the strongest São Paulo federal public institution which is under the auspices of the Ministry of Education of Brazil (MEC). It is now one of the five federal HEIs in the state of São Paulo along with ITA, UFSCar, UNIFESP and UFABC. Its history is marked, on its different phases, by the great quality of public education as well as professional qualification offered to the international and the Brazilian market.

IFSP history begins with the creation of the Escola de Aprendizes e Artífices (EAA) (School of Apprentices and Artifices), created in 1909, with its education focused on the qualification of both workpeople and forepeople.

Between 1960 and 1990, The EAA evolved into Escola Técnica Federal de São Paulo (ETEFSP) (São Paulo Technical School) driven by its excellence in professional preparation of its students for the world of work, which resulted into ETEFSP to become a very respected and appreciated institution by the society since it qualified vocational secondary level technicians in the areas of Mechanics and Edifications for a start then moving into Electrotechnics, Electronics, Telecommunications, Data Processing and Industrial Technology.

Later, in 2000, ETEFSP became the Federal Center of Technological Education of São Paulo (Portuguese: Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de São Paulo, CEFET-SP) which was remodeled and expanded focusing on the staff, facilities and technological development. In 1987 it opened its second campus, located in the city of Cubatão on the south coast of São Paulo and in 1996 its third campus, located in the countryside city of Sertãozinho, come into sight.

From 2005 onwards many campuses came into existence in different cities such as Guarulhos (2005), Caraguatatuba and São João da Boa Vista (2006), Salto and Bragança Paulista (2007) as well as São Carlos and São Roque (2008).

In the year 2008, CEFET-SP became the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo (Portuguese: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo). This change fostered a non-stop and on-going growth and expansion of campuses all over the state of São Paulo. Today, IFSP has got more than 60.000 students with 10,000 new students joining the IFSP community each year, approx. 5.900 civil servants spread around its ~40 campuses.

IFSP currently offers undergraduate baccalaureate, vocational, technical and teaching courses as well as secondary schoolling and graduate lato and stricto sensu programmes. IFSP R&D figures currently are more than 85.000 academic papers, 143 RDI Labs as well as ~170 research groups.

Thus, based upon its history and data, one of the objectives pursued by IFSP is to continuous qualify ethical and professional citizens which can offer relevant contributions to the society. Therefore, its actions point towards a continuum in future developments of new technologies, cultural and social investments.