Aktuelles

Final selection of interns from Kenya - A trip to the Equator

Picture: AgrarKontakte International e.V.

Final selection of Interns from Kenya - A Trip to the Equator

For the first time in the 30t years of the AKI Internship Program, students from Kenya will live and work on agricultural family farms in southern Germany for a period of six months.

In the end of February 2020 project manager Markus Roßkopf travelled to Lake Victoria in Western Kenya  to select the applicants for the 2020 internship program. The partner school "Bukura Agricultural College", located just a view kilometres north of the equator, attracts young farmers from across the country due to its practice-oriented training focus and thus offers ideal conditions for a successful internship cooperation.

Out of more than 100 applications, 50 pre-selected candidates were given the chance to prove their German language skills in addition to their personal competence and practical experience in agriculture to later obtain one of the 30 coveted internship places. The candidates are between 18 and 26 years old and predominantly grew up in agricultural subsistence farming.

As expected, but still with great pleasure, AKI Project Manager Markus Roßkopf was able to convince himself of the candidates' great motivation and curiosity. In addition to the excellent English language skills and the comprehensive German language course, an interactive online German course is being implemented for the first time to prepare the interns in the best way possible for starting their internship by the end of May 2020.

The German-African Trainee Program" (GATP) is part of the "Training Pact with Africa by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). AKI will be organizing and operating the Internship Program with Kenya. In the coming years, several hundred young Africans will be given the opportunity to expand their knowledge and experience in the agri-food sector in various training and further education programs in the South of Germany. The focus will be put on capacity building, which fits very well with the motto of the AKI Internship Programs "learning by doing". The aim of the BMZ initiative is to improve the economic and social prospects of young and rural Africa to combat one of the main causes of economic migration and flight.

Few places still available

In addition to Kenya - and from 2021 on also Togo - another new country program with Georgia, is being launched. Thus, AKI is looking for hosting farms in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse as well as the Palatinate and Rhine-Hesse. If you, as a family-operated agricultural business, are interested in participating, please contact us as soon as possible to receive one of our final spots for this year.