Overview

• Fifteen men and women arrived in early August with agency assistance and are scheduled to begin training in September at AKN’s Kaltenkirchen site.
• Training lasts about one year, with roughly nine months of theory and three months of practical instruction covering Germany’s operating and shunting rules.
• Applicants met the same standards as domestic trainees, including a school-leaving certificate, B1-level German and medical fitness, and all selected recruits hold university degrees.
• AKN’s stated aim is to retain graduates beyond the training year to help relieve persistent locomotive driver shortages.
• Schleswig-Holstein economy minister Claus Ruhe Madsen endorsed the model, noting lessons from a 2024 Flensburg bus-driver pilot with Kenyan recruits that produced some completions but also dropouts and now awaits review.