LEGO training. An educational program for vocational professions

At the present time, the conventional academic education for vocational professions in Romania strives to cover extensively the development of occupational skills. Alongside the theoretical part, the practical experiences play an important role in the process of continuing education and professional evolution of graduates. In real life situations, the theoretical aspects are better assimilated when combined with training oriented towards development of abilities for a positive interaction with clients, especially the managerial and soft skills. This study proposes a non-formal educational training program focused on improving certain skills required in vocational professions, especially relevant for architects, as identified through a questionnaire methodology. The concept is based on the LEGO game and the program beneficiaries are instructed on how to build a metaphorical construction of their existing and acquired skills out of color-coded blocks, each representing a set of abilities. This article underlines the main issues regarding institutionalized vocational education and presents the results of the survey as well as the development of a two-week learning program. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc-nd/3.0/).