Notice of Intent to Award Single Source Contract

Purpose: In accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) Acquisition Management System (AMS) Section T3.2.2.4 - Single Source, the purpose of this announcement is to summarize the basis for the single source decision. Nature of Procurement Action: The FAA intends to award a single-source delivery order to Tutor.com for approximately 2,800 sessions of online mathematics tutoring for ATSS personnel completing the FAAs Mathematics Refresher Course (FAA 44530001). This delivery order will be issued against Tutor.com’s GSA Schedule # GS-35F-191BA and will contain fixed price line items. This is a new contract action and not a follow on to an existing contract or a modification expanding the scope of an existing task order. This is an urgent action, with immediate award required to ensure that the FAA is able to successfully train newly hired ATSSs to perform safety related maintenance actions on National Airway System equipment. The Agency’s strategy for meeting the staffing requirements to support air traffic operations includes onboarding and training of approximately 400 new technicians in fiscal year 2019, and an additional 400 in fiscal year 2020. To accomplish this objective, the Training Policy and Programs Group revised the initial training curriculum to be delivered via distance learning on the electronic Learning Management System (eLMS). The Agency estimates each student will require approximately four sessions of tutoring support during their training progression, totaling approximately 2,800 sessions. As previously stated, the Agency is hiring 400 technicians through the remainder of FY19 and will hire approximately 300 of the estimated 400 for FY20 given the Period of Performance for this contract. For FY19, the Agency has already hired approximately 100 technicians that are awaiting training, and will continue to hire approximately 50 new technicians per month throughout the remainder of the FY. Approximately 400 tutoring sessions are needed immediately to accommodate the 100 technicians awaiting training, with an additional 200 sessions needed per month to provide training for additional new hires. To meet the Agency’s training needs; mathematics tutoring services must be obtained by the required delivery date of June 2019. Description of Supplies/Services Beginning March 2019, the initial training curriculum for newly hired ATSSs, known as Common Principles, was revised from a nine-week instructor-led training (ILT) course at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center (MMAC) to increase training throughput and reduce travel related expenses while maintaining continuity of knowledge transfer. The revised course is now structured as a combination of two distance learning eLMS courses followed by a two-and-a-half-week ILT course at the FAA Academy. The two eLMS courses are Mathematics Refresher and Fundamentals of Electronics and are prerequisites for the Electronics Troubleshooting ILT portion taught at the Academy. Mathematics tutoring is a vital component of the Agency’s strategy for providing appropriate assistance to the students, similar to previously provided assistance during the fully ILT Common Principles course. Additionally, the mathematics tutoring solutions were agreed to by the Agency and Bargaining Unit as a risk mitigation measure to demonstrate the Agency’s commitment to successful ATSS training. The FAA requires on-demand tutoring support that will supplement the Mathematics Refresher correspondence course materials and aid technicians in successfully completing the course. The online math tutoring requirement is to provide access to live, personal tutoring to approximately 400 newly hired ATSS personnel per year. The tutoring must provide online access for the students using standard computers and portable device such as smart phones and tablets. Tutoring must be available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, with the exception of Federal holidays. This is to allow ATSS personnel working non-standard shifts at work locations in varied locations access to the service. It is estimated that personnel will require an average of four tutoring sessions each to successfully complete the Mathematics Refresher course. Rationale Supporting Use of a Single Source In recent years, the FAA’s Mathematics Refresher course has been taught as a part of the current Common Principles course. As noted above, the FAA’s Common Principles course changed from a nine-week instructor led training (ILT) course at the MMAC, to a two-and-a-half-week course at the FAA Academy. Mathematics content that was previously taught as ILT training is now being delivered to technicians locally at their home facilities via distance learning through eLMS. The math refresher portion of the ATSS new hire training has traditionally had a high failure rate that was mitigated by instructor tutoring assistance, which helped struggling students regain the math skills required to pass the course. The new format Common Principles course began in March 2019. Successful completion of the Mathematics Refresher distance learning component is a prerequisite to the follow on Electronics distance learning course, and the ILT Electronics Troubleshooting course. Failures in the first component, Mathematics Refresher, will present a significant bottleneck of student throughput and potentially cause the Agency to not meet its staffing targets to maintain safe air traffic operations. As previously mentioned, the Agency’s hiring target for ATSSs is approximately 400 with approximately 100 already hired. Hiring will continue at an approximate rate of 50 per month, which translates to a scheduled need of 400 tutoring sessions immediately and an additional 200 per month throughout the remainder of FY19. In FY20, the number of newly hired technicians will drop to approximately 38 per month, which translates to a scheduled need of approximately 150 sessions per month. In total, the estimated hiring will be approximately 700 throughout the contract period of performance up to an estimated total of 2,800 sessions. Providing students with on-demand tutoring resources will help support a higher student pass rate, which will in turn ensure students are able to be enrolled in the critical Common Principles course. The distance-learning mathematics portion of the revised Common Principles curriculum began in March 2019. The Electronics and ILT Electronics Troubleshooting portions have been under development and will be available for ATSS completion in June 2019. For this reason, on-demand mathematics tutoring is required no later than June 2019. This service will ensure seamless progression for students through the Common Principles components. Several critical components necessary for tutoring include providing access to live, personal tutoring with availability to tutor multiple students at once. Additionally, tutoring must provide online access for the students using standard computers and portable devices such as smart phones and tablets with the ability to share and upload working documents. Lastly, tutoring must be available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, with the exception of Federal holidays. This is to allow ATSS personnel working non-standard shifts at work locations in varied locations access to the service. It was determined that Tutor.com is the only source available to satisfy the FAA’s requirement within the required time. The FAA intends to award this delivery order against Tutor.com’s GSA Schedule contract GS-35F-191BA to leverage the pre-negotiated terms and rates and expedite the award process. To initiate an unrestricted competition at this point would cause unacceptable delays to the acquisition of tutoring that is needed now to address mathematics refresher failure rates and prevent bottlenecks in the student training process. Market analysis was conducted using web searches for online mathematics tutoring, on GSA Advantage, and by posting a market survey announcement on FAA Contracting Opportunities (FAACO) website. Seven firms responded to the FAA market survey. Three were assessed as fully responsive to the FAA’s capability statements, but further research on each respondent’s website revealed that only Tutor.com offered online math tutoring. A search of GSA Advantage returned only one vendor who meets FAA requirements. This vendor was Tutor.com. Given the urgency and criticality of this requirement, the use of the GSA schedules with its pre-established and pre-evaluated rates and terms is considered to be in the best interest of the Government. Because Tutor.com currently offers the full range of the FAA’s requirements through the GSA schedules, only this firm is capable of providing the required tutoring services in the timeframe required. Other Facts Supporting Use of Single Source As noted above, the immediate critical need for online mathematics tutoring services for ATSS necessitates a direct award to Tutor.com at this time. The FAA intends to conduct appropriate procurement planning to ensure that future requirements for mathematics tutoring beyond the one-year period of performance of this effort can be competed among authorized suppliers to the greatest extent practicable. This will eliminate the need for a single-source award in the future. If you're viewing this announcement from a source other than Federal Aviation Administration Contract Opportunities (FAACO), visit https://faaco.faa.gov/index.cfm/announcement/view/33728 to view the original announcement.