Learning is for everyone. Teachers included. Just ask Andy.
If we’re proud of one thing at the LEGO Group, it’s our people. Between them they have many lifetimes of experience and insight to bring to what we do. Andy is one of them. He joined us as a Senior Learning Design Manager in August 2022. Ever since, he’s invested nearly two decades of teaching expertise in our products.
“I’d lived my whole life in Stoke on Trent in England before I joined LEGO® Education. Making the move to Denmark was a big decision - particularly as I’m married with two children. But it’s proved to be my dream job and a great decision for us all. I get to impact the lives of everyone who gets hands-on with our products. When curious minds engage with our products, they learn something. And when we learn something, we enrich ourselves. What’s not to love about that?”
Andy’s background as a secondary and further education Maths teacher has proved to be the ideal preparation for this role:
“I help to design the learning direction of future LEGO Education products. It’s all about making sure that they’re both super-fun and exciting, as well as enabling kids to learn. I’m able to bring my teacher brain to these activities ensuring learning experiences match up to high demands of curriculum coverage while having the magic of the LEGO brick. I contribute creative ideas to the team so, together, we can inspire young people to build their imagination and explore their potential with learning through play.”
It sounds like a lot of fun. How does this play out in Andy’s day-to-day role:
“We get super hands on with the bricks and when we have play sessions with kids, we get to see how our ideas are landing. Children really are our teachers. It is great to work so closely with my colleagues and really focus in on designing a unique learning experience that can have a lasting impact…. And, yes, we do have lots of fun role playing and coming up with learning ideas. We hope this comes out in the end product too.
“I’m also a Playground Builder and a Play Agent. This means injecting the spirit of play into our everyday work. Not only does this make doing what we do enjoyable; it also helps all of us succeed. It’s good to be playful.”
As an educator, it’s Andy’s role to draw on his experience to champion learning. But what has he learned himself since joining us:
“For one thing: you have to learn to accept failure, fail fast and then learn from it and move on… the more you fail the more you know you're going to learn from it! Embrace it… it is the essence of designing products and is central to who and how we are a as a business. It’s also been insightful to get involved with the design team and be so hands on creating learning activities with the bricks.
“To be fair, this has been a huge learning curve for me. I have become much more aware of the intricacies and balances of designing for a large organization and not just my own classroom. As my role has developed, I feel integral to the design team; but this speaks to our wonderful spirit of collaboration.
“Our mission means everything to me. I love what LEGO Education represents and the impact it has on kids. After spending many years using our products with kids and adults, it’s an amazing experience to be on the other side designing future products. It’s my job, what can I say, but it never really feels like work.”
Just imagine a career you can make your own. Then do it for real!
Join the LEGO® Education team today