Recruiting more women on Cairo's public transport

Public transport in Cairo aims to facilitate the life of citizens and contribute to providing job opportunities, especially for youth. Training female drivers would contribute to adding active Egyptian staff to one of the most vital national projects. This could be attained through transferring RATP Group’s global knowledge to the local market, via highly qualified employees who operate and manage Cairo Metro Green Line 3 – 90% of whom are promising Egyptian youth.

This training initiative supports NAT’s (National Authority for Tunnel) goals and the vision of the Egyptian ministry of Transport towards the development and provision of transport services with international standards.

This unique initiative was launched in September 2021 with a recruitment campaign on social networks dedicated to women inviting them to join the driver training programme. RATP Dev Mobility Cairo was keen on delivering the candidates applying for the “train driver” training and assessments the highest level of professionalism.

In April 2022, at the end of the first three-month training course, two of the new recruits obtained the capability to contribute to passenger transport.

Since May 2022, they have been the first women driving trains on Line 3 of the Cairo metro, according to international standards. A great first in Egypt!

This initiative also inspired the RATP Dev Mobility Cairo teams in charge of the operation and maintenance of the LRT (light rail transit) suburban line, which links the current capital and the country’s new administrative capital. To date, 83 women applied to the training. Among the 51 selected, 17 attended the training, and finally 8 became drivers: 2 on the Cairo metro line 3, and 6 on the LRT line.

In addition, in 2022, RATP Dev Mobility Cairo integrated the first Egyptian woman into its engineering department. RATP Dev Mobility Cairo will soon open a training centre for transport professionals, which will provide even more opportunities for Egyptian women to assert their presence and roles in this sector.