U -- ACQUISITION TRAINING FOR PROJECT OFFICERS

Notice Date

May 25, 2001

Contracting Office

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Division of Contracts and Property Management, Mail Stop T-7-I-2, Washington, D.C. 20555

ZIP Code

20555

Solicitation Number

RS-HR-01-284

Response Due

June 15, 2001

Point of Contact

Carolyn A. Cooper (301)415-6737/Mona Selden (301)415-7907

E-Mail Address

click here to contact the Contract Specialist via (cac3@NRC.GOV)

Description

This amendment corrects the classification code and provides the continuation of the solicitation document. C.6.3 NRC will furnish, and the contractor shall utilize, NRC expert personnel to further amplify certain topics, and/or answer questions that may arise regarding NRC procedures, practices, and policy related to the procurement process. C.6.4 Upon the effective date of this contract, and on an annual basis thereafter, the contractor shall work with the NRC PO to develop a training schedule for each of the courses for the upcoming year. Upon mutual agreement of the upcoming year's training schedule, the NRC PO will provide the written schedule to the NRC PO. This procedure is necessary in order to assure instructor and training room availability. The written year-long schedule provided by the NRC PO to the contractor shall serve as the written delivery order for the training to be offered. The NRC PO will inform the contractor ten days prior to the workshop offering, the number of participants enrolled for the workshop. C.6.5 The maximum number of participants in any training workshop will be 30 employees. Although the minimum number of employees for each course is generally 10 employees, the NRC PO may, at his/her discretion, schedule a workshop for less than 10 employees. The NRC PO will be responsible for soliciting, nominating, and enrolling NRC employees as workshop participants. (Although a workshop participant may have been responsible for all or part of a project involving DOE labs, interagency agreements, or a commercial contract, the participants generally have not attended an acquisition course within the last five years. Nevertheless, the participants' experience does not substitute for knowledge of the contract regulations stated in the FAR or NRC's policy.) C.6.6 All workshops will be conducted in the NRC's training facility located in Rockville, Maryland. C.6.7 The one-day workshops shall commence promptly at 8:30 a.m. and conclude at 3:30 p.m., allowing one hour for lunch and 10-minute breaks each hour on the hour. One-half day workshops shall commence promptly at 8:30 a.m. and conclude at 11:30 a.m., allowing for 10-minute breaks each hour on the hour. C.6.8 The contractor shall arrive in sufficient time prior to start of each class to set-up the training room, arrange the furniture as necessary, lay out participant materials and instructor's aids, and set-up equipment, such as connecting contractor-laptop. C.6.9 The contractor's instructor(s) shall account for participant attendance by ensuring the completion of NRC sign-in sheet. In addition, the instructor(s) shall place a check beside the participant's name on the sign-in sheet twice a day during each morning and each afternoon of the one-day class. The instructor shall deliver the sign-in sheet to the NRC PO at the end of the day of workshop completion. C.6.10 Immediately following each session of each class, the instructor shall leave the training room neat, with trash (including used flip chart sheets) stowed in the trash cans. Any extra student materials shall be neatly stacked on the counter under the clock for the NRC PO to store in NRC's storage space. The NRC PO will determine the location of temporary storage for unused workshop materials. C.6.11 The contractor's instructor(s) shall distribute any hand-out materials at any workshop that may be provided to the instructor(s) by the NRC PO. C.6.12 The workshops shall be presented in accordance with the requirements set forth herein. C.6.13 At the end of each workshop, the instructors shall remind each participant to complete the NRC-prepared evaluation form located in the front pocket of the participant's handbook and ask that it be completed and left on the instructor's table. The evaluations shall be delivered to the NRC PO by the instructor at the end of the class. The NRC PO is responsible for sending copies of the evaluations to the contractor within five working days after workshop completion. C.6.14 Within 15 working days after completion of the workshop module, the contractor shall submit to the NRC PO any comments its instructor(s) considers relevant to the improvement of the content of the workshop taught or any other suggestions for improving classroom performance of participants that would help the participants perform better back on the job. If necessary, the contractor may meet with the NRC PO to discuss these recommendations. (The NRC PO will make the decision whether a meeting is necessary.) The meeting shall be mutually scheduled between the NRC PO and the contractor and shall be held in the NRC facility in Rockville, Maryland. C.6.15 In addition, the contractor is responsible for ensuring that its instructor is aware of any changes made since the last time the workshop was given. Specifically, the following four requirements are crucial to this responsibility: 1) The contractor instructor personnel shall be thoroughly familiar with each of the acquisition Guides and Handbooks and any revisions made since the last offering of the workshop. He or she shall also be aware of the other workshop modules in order to speak intelligently about the Acquisition Training Program as whole, should questions arise as to the connection between the workshop being taught and any of the other workshops in the program. The instructor shall also be knowledgeable with regard to concepts and processes from NRC Management Directives 11.1 and 11.7. The instructor shall use and follow the IG for each of the workshops taught. The instructor shall discuss the objectives of each workshop presented and check throughout the workshop to ensure that the stated learning objectives for each workshop are met. 2)The workshop materials are contractor-provided and will be located in the training room where the workshop is held. 3) Throughout the period of performance of this contract, the NRC PO may require the contractor, who will be responsible for maintaining and updating the training materials, to incorporate minor changes into the course materials before the next workshop is given. It shall be the responsibility of the contractor to be aware of these changes and to stress to its instructor(s) the importance of their knowledge of these changes and to present them in the workshops they teach. C.6.16 NRC reserves the right to cancel a workshop within ten working days of a scheduled offering if insufficient enrollment should occur. C.7. STUDENT TESTING. Knowledge and proficiency testing shall be a required element of evaluating the student's progress in the training module in which they are being instructed. Testing shall be administered periodically to determine the student's progress in training, to identify areas of weakness where supplemental or remedial training may be needed, and to quantify the student's then-current level of knowledge and proficiency. Initial testing will be used to quantify the student's baseline for measurement of knowledge and proficiency obtained, and may be used in a predictive manner to facilitate personal training planning. All testing shall be performed using standardized tests which are approved in advance by the NRC Project Officer. All tests shall assess the students knowledge of the NRC's acquisition process and shall be designed to determine if the learning objectives has been met. The contractor shall record testing results, analyze results and prepare a report which shall document the results of the analysis and the student's progress. C.8 MONITORING THE CONTRACT C.8.1 During the life of the contract, the NRC PO shall monitor the workshops training to observe the quality of instruction and to assure that materials used are adequate, current, and meet NRC's acquisition training requirements. As a minimum, the quality of the instruction will be evaluated on the instructor's ability to: 1. Maintain control of the learning time so that the presentation of information and exercises remain organized and timely, key points and course objectives are met, breaks are provided within the overall course schedule; and distractions, such as questions that are of minimal interest to the class as a whole, are answered later and/or individually. 2. Observe the effect of the instruction on the class and reasonably attempt to clarify, provide examples, or in some other way, change the manner of instruction to help correct problems and improve the participants' opportunity to learn. 3. Involve the participants in sufficient and practical exercises with the subject matter, to reinforce the understanding and retention of information. 4. Improve course materials and note errors, omissions or other problems that may occur during the presentation of the workshops. C.9 DELIVERABLES C.9.1 The contractor shall provide qualified instructors to teach five of the eleven workshops as stated in this SOW and deliver the specified number of participant handbooks for each of the workshops at least five working days prior to the beginning of the workshop session. The contractor is also responsible for providing three copies of all updated and revised pages of the eleven workshops to NRC PO. Materials shall be addressed to: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Attention: Mary Holmes, Professional Development Center, 11545 Rockville Pike, Mail Stop T-3 B3, Rockville, MD 20852-2738. Incoming workshop materials from the contractor shall have the title of the workshop, date of presentation of workshop, and the NRC PO's name noted on the outside of the box. This information should be clearly written in bold lettering. C.10 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE. The period of performance shall be for one year from the date of award and three additional option years. C.11 FREQUENCY OF TASKS TO BE PERFORMED C.11.1 Instruction for each of the eleven workshops shall be presented a minimum of twice a year. The contractor's instructor shall teach five of the eleven workshops. (This will require costs being given for the instructor's cost and the materials cost.) For planning purposes, offerors should submit a unit price per workshop, should it be necessary for NRC to offer more or less than two sessions of any one workshop during any fiscal year. Each of the six workshops taught by NRC personnel will also be given a minimum of twice a year. C.11.2 Timely delivery of all workshop materials is important both for those work-shops taught by the contractor and those taught by NRC personnel. It is estimated that the contractor will maintain the currency of all workshop materials and that before the workshop is presented, the contractor will contact the NRC PO and the DCPM subject matter expert to ascertain if any changes are necessary before preparing the materials for the workshop to be offered. There shall also be a provision for requesting additional books for a particular session, should it be necessary. C.12 GOVERNMENT-FURNISHED MATERIALS. Upon award, the NRC will provide the contractor with the following: One copy of the IG for each of the workshops taught by the contractor's instructors; One copy of the PH for each of the workshops taught by the contractor's instructors; A copy of NRC Management Directives 11.1 and 11.7; Current diskettes for all eleven workshops; Training facilities; and Flip charts, overhead projector, tent cards, markers, and pens. C.13 CONTRACTOR FURNISHED EQUIPMENT. Contractor shall furnish its own laptop and slides used in teaching the workshops presented by contractor's instructors. COST PROPOSAL INFORMATION. The following information is provided to assist an offeror to make a reasonable cost estimate on the materials: (1) It is estimated that the contractor will provide three copies each of the updated pages for the IG and the PH for each workshop module each time a module is updated or revised, based on the assumption that each of the eleven modules will be revised at least twice in a calendar year. (2) It is estimated that the contractor will be required to provide a minimum of 40 PH copies (per year) over a four-year period for the half-day Acquisition for Supervisors and Managers of Project Managers workshop, based on the assumption that the workshop will be offered twice a year with a minimum of 20 people in each workshop. (3) It is estimated that 250 PH copies (per year) for the remaining ten workshops will be required based on the assumption that the ten workshops will be offered twice a year with a minimum of 10 participants attending a workshop. However, the NRC reserves the right to schedule more or fewer sessions and to have a larger class, if needed. Therefore, the offeror shall provide a unit price per person for each of the eleven workshops and a price per workshop. NOTE: If less than 10 participants attend, then the unit price shall apply, provided it is lower than the minimum workshop price. EVALUATION FACTORS AND AWARD By use of numerical and narrative scoring techniques, proposals will be evaluated against the evaluation factors specified in paragraph M.2. below. These factors are listed in their relative order of importance. Award will be made to the offeror: (1) Whose proposal is technically acceptable; (2) Whose technical/cost relationship is most advantageous to the Government, and; (3) Who is considered to be responsible within the meaning of Federal Acquisition Regulations, Part 9.1. Although cost is a factor in the evaluation of proposals, technical merit in the evaluation criteria set forth below is a more significant factor in the selection of a contractor. Further, to be selected for an award, the proposed cost must be realistic and reasonable. The Government may: (1) Reject any or all offers if the action is in the public interest; (2) Accept other than the lowest offer or (3) Waive informalities and minor irregularities in offers received. The Government intends to award a contract on the basis of initial offers received, without discussions. Therefore, each initial offer should contain the offeror's best terms from the cost or price and technical standpoints. A separate cost analysis is performed on each cost proposal. To provide a common base for evaluation of cost proposals, the level of effort data must be expressed in staff hours. In making the above determination, an analysis is performed by the Government that takes into consideration the results of the technical evaluation and cost analysis. TECHNICAL EVALUATION CRITERIA The NRC will evaluate an offeror's proposal from the perspective of the technical merits of the proposal, qualifications of the offeror and offeror's proposed key personnel (instructor(s)), written evidence of successful past performance for both offeror and proposed key personnel (instructor(s)) in providing acquisition training to Government Project Managers similar to that of this procurement. The following criteria and weights shall be used by the NRC to evaluate the proposal: A. QUALIFICATIONS OF PROPOSED PERSONNEL -- 50 POINTS The extent to which the offeror demonstrates that the proposed key personnel has the requisite experience and qualifications to satisfy the NRC's requirement. Offeror must provide evidence of related education and experience of proposed instructor(s) in instructing similar type acquisition workshops to Federal Government employees. Proposed instructor(s) must demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the Federal Acquisition Regulations, NRC contract regulations and DOE laboratory agreements and the processes and procedures used in acquiring goods and services. Documented evidence of technical expertise in the Acquisition Field may include: letters of commendation from participants and/or Federal Government agencies, certificates of appreciation, or excerpts from videotapes of like training conducted by an instructor showing a high degree of performance. B. CORPORATE EXPERIENCE/PAST PERFORMANCE -- 50 POINTS The Offeror shall clearly demonstrate to the NRC that they have the resident corporate experience necessary to develop and present federal acquisition courses which are identical or similar to the course described in the statement of work. The offeror shall demonstrate corporate experience in designing and developing customized training objectives, student exercises and materials and visual aids for support of instructor presentations. The Offeror shall also demonstrate that they have successfully performed on other contracts or purchase orders of similar size and scope within the past five years in performing contracts for the instruction of acquisition workshops for Federal government employees. This shall be done by describing current and past work of a similar or identical nature in such a manner that an evaluation can be made of the performance history and the relevance of this experience to the requirements of the solicitation. To this end, the Offeror shall list at least three (3) current/previous support contracts of the same or similar nature to the proposed contract. It is incumbent upon the Offeror to provide information which is accurate and current as the NRC will contact each reference to verify the information provided. Offerors will be provided the opportunity to provide written rebuttal for any negative information received. This rebuttal information will be taken into consideration in evaluating proposals. The offeror shall provide the information requested using the format specified below. Each contract reference shall be limited to one page in length: a. Contract or Purchase Order Number; b. Name and Address of Government Agency; c. Point of Contact; d. Contracting Officer Name; e. Current Telephone Number and Facsimile Number; f. Technical Representative; g. Estimated Value of Purchase Order/Contract Awarded; h. Period of Performance of the Contract or Purchase Order (including extensions); i. Outline how the contracted effort is similar or identical in nature to the NRC's requirement, with a brief technical description sufficient to permit ready assessment of the described project's relevancy to the NRC's requirement. It is not sufficient to just note that it is similar in magnitude and scope. Briefly outline your ability to meet course schedules. TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS = 100 POINTS. See next amendment for the rest of the solicitation.

Web Link

clisk here to download a copy of the RFP (http://www.nrc.gov/ADM/CONTRACT/solcon.html)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010530/USOL003.HTM (W-145 SN50N1Z8)