70 -- Skills Management System & Support Services

On behalf of the Sea Warrior Information Technology (IT) Program Management Office, the Naval Air Warfare Center Training System Division has a requirement to purchase a commercially available Skills Management System (SMS) software application suite with operation, maintenance, analysis, training, and technical support services in support of Navy, DoD and potentially other Federal agencies. The Contractor will be required to provide a suite of commercially available web-based tools and corresponding technical services for the collection, validation, analysis, and management, and maintenance of skill and task data for both occupational and non-occupational work in accordance with nationally accepted methods for occupational analysis and standards development. The processes and methods used by the tools shall be based on accepted industrial/organizational psychology to collect reliable and validated data; utilize principles of human behavior to categorize job behaviors; utilize well-defined taxonomies to identify and quantify knowledge, skills, abilities, and tools required for work; utilize science of survey population sampling, survey design, and survey delivery; adhere to legal requirements regarding employment discrimination and legally defensible occupational data; be based on and compatible with the Department of Labor's O*NET directory of occupational descriptions.The tools shall utilize a pre-existing library of Navy and DOL occupational competency descriptions to simplify the process. The processes and methods used by the vendor shall support a multifaceted collection of work, worker and workplace data content requirements in a specific environment or set of environments, that will be used to support Navy business processes of skills and competency capture, competency to position mapping, use of dynamic incentives, job selection and learning choice. The processes and methods used by the vendor must allow the Navy to define every position and job at a level of granularity that connects the skill sets to supporting training events and performance requirements that fully articulate all work and workplace requirements attached to the job and position. The process and tools shall support and integrate the Navy's requirement for three levels of data collection (Level I, Level II, and Level III). Level I data shall provide sufficient detail to develop occupational standards. Level II data shall provide sufficient detail to assess performance and provide training at the task level. Level III shall provide sufficient detail to support the development and assessment of the human's role in a system design. All three levels shall be linked to the other two in order to facilitate the sharing of information between manpower, personnel, training, and acquisition communities. The tools and processes must support the Total Force'active, reserve, civil service, and contractors to permit common definition of work, worker and workplace requirements that will allow skill-based detailing and work assignment that is not restricted to rank, rate, or Navy Enlisted Code (NEC). The resulting information must be evaluated in such a way as to support accurate placement of the individual in a job, as well as career growth opportunities that will prepare the individual for the next assignment. The Navy intends to procure perpetual licenses for the tools, with rights to use and modify the source code for purposes of simplifying the user interface and integration into the Navy's Manpower, Personnel, and Training and Education IT Systems. The tools will be used by Navy and contractor personnel to develop occupational standards, define work, worker and workplace information in a manner that permits assessment of skill gaps, development of learning strategies, skills development, and measure performance for both military and civilian personnel. The Contractor will be required to provide user training and certification for the employment of the tools and processes provided to the Navy to include certification of Navy Manpower, Personnel, and Learning Center staffs, and maintain a help desk to assist users with technical issues. The Contractor will be required to provide skill analysts certified in the use of tools and processes to assist the Navy with its ongoing data capture efforts of various job categories including Level I, Level II, and Level III; enlisted, officer, reserves, and civilian; primary and collateral duties; critical work functions; and recruit, apprentice, journeyman, and master. The contractor shall provide analysts to assist in defining, collecting, and maintaining Human Capital Objects; establishing knowledge, skills, abilities and tools (KSAT) data and performance statements; linking training events and content to tasks; exploring the capture and use of skill data in a team environment; and performing manpower, personnel, and training analysis. The Contractor will be required to provide technical support to respond to SMS user issues and questions; manage configuration of SMS data in accordance with Navy approved Configuration Management Plans; revise the Skills Management System to address revised data needs for the Navy's training community; assist in the development and modification of Navy applications and services that utilize SMS data; assist in the development and standardization of SMS related business processes, data and report formats; assist with the establishment and implementation of processes for analyzing captured skill information, utilizing skill information in a training environment, utilizing and creating skill information during system design and development process, measuring Sailor performance; and assist at conferences and meetings where in-depth knowledge of SMS process, methods, applications, data models, and logical models are required. Since 2001, the Navy has utilized tools, processes and methodology, and personnel from SkillsNET Corporation. The Navy's requirement for job task analysis methodology was and remains: a) an automated on line product suite encompassing occupational and training analyses and the most up-to-date taxonomy for describing work similar to the Department of Labor, the Department of Education, and several State Governments, since there is commonality between occupational and training requirements identified in those segments when compared to Navy requirements, thereby saving considerable time and effort for the Navy's Revolution in Training; b) a system that utilizes job incumbents (not outside job analyst observers) via the Internet to develop and validate the tasks, knowledge, skills, ability, and tools, in a job-specific company/industry, thereby using an Internet-based job analysis system which allows multiple subject-matter experts access to the system at least 18 hours per day, 7 days a week; c) an occupational science-based system to cluster valid tasks into small clusters of tasks, skills, abilities, tools and specialized knowledge requirements by critical job function; d) a system that provides a starter library of key occupations that have been developed in one or more state education or Workforce Improvement Act environment; and e) an automated on-line product that meets the legislative, judicial and executive order standards required in determining manpower, training and occupational requirements. The Skills Management System (SMS) software application suite shall embed the DOL O*Net common language descriptors for skills and abilities and provide a valid framework to define unique tasks, tools, and knowledge requirements to perform the Navy critical work functions. The Navy has made a substantial investment in training personnel in the use of SkillsNET tools and processes, analyzing its workforce, and developing web services that utilize the resulting data. Contractors interested in providing the before mentioned products, licenses, and services will be required to utilize the existing Skills Management System data, modify existing Navy web services, and provide a cost estimate for modifications to all system interfaces that utilize data from the SMS as necessary to accommodate any differences between Navy's current SMS and vendor's proposed SMS, and provide refresher training to trained workforce who interface with the SMS to address changes from current SMS and vendor's proposed SMS. Contractors capable of accomplishing the required products and services are invited to submit literature, brochures, and/or capabilities summaries, that as a minimum, identify current commercially available products and company capabilities; identify business size and past (limit to within 3 years) and current performance on similar contracts (include dollar value, complexity and point of contact); identify business type (i.e., large business, small business, small disadvantaged business, 8(a) certified business, woman-owned business, etc); provide rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost and schedule to tailor vendor's products to Navy's requirements; identify vendor's proposed SMS data structures and how existing Skills Management System data will be utilized, including ROM cost and schedule to migrate existing data; address anticipated impacts to other existing Navy applications and services that utilize data from the SMS including cost and schedule to implement any required modifications; and address impact to trained workforce who interface with the SMS including ROM cost and schedule for any required refresher training. Please limit any extraneous information. Information should be sent via e-mail to katherine.holcomb@navy.mil. Alternative submittal methods are via facsimile to (407) 380-4164 Attn: K. Holcomb or by mail to: NAVAIR Orlando Training Systems Division, ATTN: Code 2.5.3.3 (K. Holcomb), 12350 Research Parkway, Orlando, FL 32826-3275. Responses required by 29 Sep 2005. Questions concerning this requirement should be directed in writing to the Contract Specialist, Katherine Holcomb, via email at katherine.holcomb@navy.mil. The submission of this information is for PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to procure any products or services, or for the Government to pay for the information received. No solicitation document exists at this time.