U -- Continuing Educational Units

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued.This solicitation, number DTFR53-07-R-00003, is issued as a request for proposal (RFP). This solicitation incorporates provisions and clauses in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-13. The following FAR provisions and clauses are incorporated into this solicitation: 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors?Commercial 52.212-2, Evaluation?Commercial Items 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications?Commercial Items 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions?Commercial Items 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required To Implement Statutes or Executive Orders?Commercial Items. The successful offeror shall be required to submit an Automated Clearing House (ACH) form noting its banking information for receipt of payment electronically prior to award. Proposals are due to the FRA on November 20, 2006 by 4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Proposals shall be submitted electronically via e-mail to contact@example.gov. No other methods of submission will be accepted. Questions regarding this solicitation may be directed to Peter Lee via e-mail. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Office of Safety, Safety Improvement and Development Team (SIDT) intends to award a contract to an educational organization interested in providing Continuing Educational Units (CEUs) to FRA employees who attend training developed, delivered, and/or managed by the SIDT. For the past two years, the SIDT delivered most technical training on the campus of Johnson County Community College (Kansas), and contracted with this educational institution for review of the course development, validation of learning objectives and pre/post testing, and providing CEUs for attendance at SIDT training. The SIDT is responsible for providing technical training to all Federal and participating State safety inspectors and specialists nationwide, and attendance is mandatory for this target audience. SIDT does not provide training to external organizations because of resource constraints, and because these courses are designed and developed for a specific regulatory audience. The SIDT uses the SAT (Systematic Approach to Training) model to develop courses delivered to Office of Safety employees, and has customized application by developing a series of tools to perform up to three levels of validation for instructional objectives and pre/post testing. The FRA will deliver training in several cities throughout the Continental United States beginning in FY 2007 and future Fiscal Years, with delivery beginning in November 2006. FRA will use hotel meeting rooms for training delivery, and training classes will begin either on a Monday or Tuesday of each week that training is offered. SIDT schedules about 60 training classes each Fiscal Year, and usually schedules 20 FRA employees for attendance at each class. Course hours range between 20 and 30. FRA will be delivering up to four training classes during any particular week, and this training may be delivered at more than one location in the same week. FRA prepares both a training course catalog and class/course calendar by the middle of October of each year. The catalog lists the course ID and name, number of hours, and course description with terminal level objectives. FRA will provide both of these documents to the educational institution with whom we sign a contract, and will provide updated calendars if revisions are necessary during the training year. The period of performance will be one base year plus four one-year option periods for a total of five years, if all options are exercised. The anticipate award is early December 2006. The FRA will award one contract based on the best value to the Government, which will include price, past performance and the offerors? technical approach, including administrative requirements imposed on the FRA SIDT staff during contract implementation and management. Educational organizations interested in contracting with FRA should be aware of the following: 1. Each FRA training specialist develops enabling objectives for each course, and uses an in-house form to validate the level of learning for each of the cognitive and affective domain objectives. The SIDT coordinator performs a second-level review of the objectives to ensure the instructional methods are suited to the level of learning the training wants to reach. FRA also uses an in-house method for performing trainer and team coordinator validations of pre/post test questions if the training uses testing for a particular course. 2. The successful educational organization would also perform a validation of the course materials, objectives, and tests. FRA will provide the data to the institution in either hard-copy or electronic format for review and filing. FRA will provide these materials once for each course, regardless of the number of classes scheduled for any particular course. If a course is modified, FRA would provide the updated course materials again. 3. The SIDT will offer about 1,100 student weeks of training in Federal Fiscal Year 2007, and anticipates a similar number of student weeks in future fiscal years. Based on analysis of CEU requests for Fiscal Year 2006, FRA estimates about 55 percent of students will request CEUs. 4. The FRA anticipates developing five new courses per year and revising five courses per year. The list below indicates the administrative and logistical steps in the process. The educational organization shall be responsible for compliance with these steps. 1 SIDT training specialists will use an in-house form to validate attendance, and can either fax or e-mail the form from the contract hotel training site to the educational institution?s point of contact. The educational institution must prepare the CEU certificates upon receipt of the faxed or e-mailed attendance form, and must send them to the SIDT training specialists via overnight package. FRA prefers delivery on the Wednesday of each class, but must have delivery to the contract hotel no later than 9 a.m. on Thursday morning of each training class. 2 The educational institution will provide FRA with an electronic version of the form which students must complete if they are interested in obtaining CEUs. The SIDT training specialist will distribute the forms for completion during the first morning of the class, and will send those forms at FRA expense to the educational institution point of contact via overnight package delivery. The SIDT training specialist will also enclose the original signed attendance listing in this package. Currently, the U.S. Government uses Federal Express for this service. 3. If circumstances beyond the control of either FRA or the educational institution prevent delivery of the CEU certificates before the class ends and the students are released to travel home, the educational institution will be responsible for mailing the certificates directly to the students. FRA presumes the forms provided by the educational institution will include each student?s mailing address, and would expect the educational institution to perform this service and to advise the FRA Contracting Officer?s Technical Representative (COTR) that they have done so via e-mail. 4. The educational institution must prepare an invoice identifying each FRA employee to whom CEUs were issued, and submit this invoice to the FRA COTR for review and approval. This invoice must be prepared no later than five days from the end of the month during which FRA delivered the last day of training for a particular class. 5. The educational organization must provide a transcript of educational credits directly to the FRA students upon demand, but at least once each calendar year, and will advise the FRA COTR via e-mail when transcripts are sent to the students on a global basis. 6. The educational organization must provide the FRA COTR with the name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address for both a primary and a secondary (back-up) point of contact. Proposal Evaluation: Technical proposals will be evaluated based on the offeror?s ability to meet the FRA?s requirements as specified above. Educational organizations submitting proposals must specify how they intend to meet of the performance for which they would be accountable. Offerors shall provide at least two examples of past performance for efforts similar to this requirement, including a brief description of the work performed and point-of-contact information (name, address, phone and e-mail, and contract number if applicable). Cost proposals must specify the number of CEUs offered per 10-hour block of instruction, the cost to FRA for each student CEU, the costs for course evaluating, and any administrative costs. The proposal may total costs into one category, i.e. - costs per CEU include the total costs, or may separate the costs into two or more categories. If the costs are separated into categories, the estimate should include five new and five revised courses for each year.