The accelerated changing of the social, economic and political world, makes new individual and social requirements at the development of human resources level, arise, particularly from the teachers who teach courses in vocational education. Teachers, in the exercise of their professionalism, are aware of their difficulties and shortcomings, but also of the requests and demands, placed on them.
Teachers seek training so that they can meet their needs of:
• Learning, motivation and interpersonal relationships, social integration and evaluation of their students;

• Organizational leadership, management and coordination;

• Relationship and inclusion in the community at local and international level;

• Promotion of their personal and professional development.
Professional development takes place in a continuous, interactive, full of advances and setbacks process, in a tension between the already and the not yet, the unfinished, in a spiral of achievement and maturity of Knowledge.

In John Dewey´s view (1974:220), quoted by Alarcão and Tavares, 1987), the "ultimate goal of teacher training is to make the teacher a thoughtful and alert student of education, able to observe, to perceive and to reflect" (p. 23), to induce changes in the behaviour, in methods and techniques to use, in the perceptions and representations, taking into account the real needs of students. The achieved changes aim, in turn, to impel transformation and development in students and organizations where they belong to, and also in educational community.

The use of diagnosis of training needs analysis of teachers with a "heuristic tool" (Rodrigues, 1999:476), but also as a hermeneutic instrument (Casanova 2005:165), which interprets the latent or hidden needs, explaining them and clarifying them, it appears to us as the means of raising awareness of the implicit needs pass from the plan of needs to the plan of the right to be satisfied and, as Barbier says, needs are translated "into objectives for action" (1996:89).  It is the interaction of the needs to know and understand the human being, with the demand of to know – know, that knowledge occurs, while " converted information into personal response through reflection " (Zaragoza, 2001:35). The needs to know – know give rise to needs to know how to do, and these originate the needs of to know how to be. The dimension of to know how to be emerges from the symbiosis of to know-know, know-how and to know-be emerging the maturity of Knowledge, or metacognition.

The diagnosis of training needs of teachers for vocational education courses seems to us of particular importance, given its specificity. With strong technical, technological, artistic and professional trend, it gives young people the "insertion into the working world" (Decree-Law 139/2012, art. 6.º d)) in a qualified way, the pursuit of higher education and success and personal enhancement. At the same time, the legislation establishes specific rules for the organization, action, evaluation and accreditation of vocational education by requiring teachers training in, according to law.

Within the framework of the construction of knowledge that we define the purpose of this exploratory study: to diagnose training needs of teachers who teach professional or vocational courses. Due to this goal come the research questions we want to answer:
• What areas do teachers wish and need to reflect ?
• What are these teachers training needs at the level:

• of management and organization of the course?

• of the teaching practice ?

• of the pedagogical relationship ?

• of indiscipline and desertion ?

• of students assessment?

• of the school community?

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