Kenneth Razak

About Ken Razak

My career spans over 50 years in a combination of higher education, industry consulting and serving as an expert witness in courts throughout the U.S. I started with a degree in Mechanical engineering in 1939 followed with a Masters degree in 1942 from the University of Kansas. I was an assistant professor at K.U. and then an Associate Professor, full Professor, Dean of engineering and director of engineering research at the University of Wichita. Next I was Professor of engineering and director of the Kansas Industrial Extension Service at Kansas State University.

Since 1970 I have been an engineering consultant, giving expert testimony in product liability and accident cases. I have consulted with industry, both while an engineering professor and during the last 45 years.

As Director of the Kansas Industrial Extension Service at Kansas State University, I was responsible for a program to make resources of the state colleges and universities available to business and industry. Since most of the workforce of Kansas industry did not have college degrees, and most had no college at all, very few of the educational offerings through my office carried college credit. Unfortunately the registrar of the university had no method of recording this "non-credit" work.

I wanted to develop a record (transcript) that would show all "classes" a person had taken. I was trying to develop a personal record that showed every learning experience the person had taken, regardless of what school had given it and also regardless of whether it carried college credit. But the university had no method of recording any work taken at another school except by official transfer from one college to another and could not record "non-credit" work. A record such as I wanted could not be developed through the university registrar.

As an only alternative I "invented" a credential that would show both this special education from KIES plus any education they had taken at schools, in companies, special seminars, conferences, etc. I called this a LIFETIME LEARNING TRANSCRIPT®. I also invented a method of defining these learning experiences in terms of LIFETIME LEARNING UNITS®. The KIES gave these transcripts to persons who attended our special offerings and several people attended over 10 of them. They used these transcripts to apply for jobs and were successful in getting them. My experiment worked.

The State Technical Services Program was terminated in 1970 and I left Kansas State to start an engineering consulting service giving expert testimony in court. My Lifetime learning idea was dormant from 1970 until about 1990 when I noticed an increasing interest in Lifetime Learning---also called lifelong learning. For person who could not, or did not want to, work toward a degree the path of Lifetime Learning was a valid alternative to maintain, or attain, competency for employment in modern industry. Accordingly, I started to write computer software to record, evaluate and document a person’s efforts in Lifetime Learning. This record was to supplement and complement diplomas and certificates from conventional schools.

It turns out that I have been working on a Knowledge Management System that develops a personal Knowledge Portfolio. With my software, the ERS FolioOne™, a person can set up a database of EVERY learning experience, both lifetime learning and school. I am now incorporating into the software a method of recording Lifetime Experiences. It is my judgement that knowledge is gained from work experiences and I have developed a technique of recording this effort in terms of knowledge thus acquired. .

The advantage of my system is that it develops a database of knowledge that a person has acquired from school, lifetime learning and lifetime experiences. This database can be searched by a prospective or current employer to determine if the person, as an applicant or as a current employee, has knowledge that is directly useable by the company.

I offer this system, both as software and as a system through the Internet, to companies, associations, schools, individuals, agencies or organizations that use or rely upon knowledge of people.

I have long recognized the value of Lifetime Learning as a component in individual development. While at the Kansas Industrial Extension Service at Kansas State University from 1966 to 1970 I published a quarterly newspaper advertising the offerings and services of KIES. I wrote an editorial for each and in the October, 1968 issue I described a procedure by which persons can plan their own educational development. I present this editorial to illustrate my thinking about an idea that is importantly relevant at this time of galloping technology. Readers can update this editorial by substituting Lifetime Learning wherever I used continuing education, which is now an obsolete term. It implies continuing an education already received. We all need NEW education. I maintain that this can be acquired through Lifetime Learning.