PTAC | The Contracting Education Academy

July 15, 2013 By AMK

Board benefits from Academy’s FAR instruction

Members of the board of directors of the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) met on Saturday, July 13, 2013 to participate in four hours of instruction conducted by The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech (The Academy).

The training topic was the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), and the class focused on the most important parts of the FAR from the standpoint of a PTAC counselor.

PTAC’s are procurement technical assistance centers. PTACs are funded, in part, by the Defense Logistics Agency to provide counseling and assistance to businesses seeking to successfully compete for federal, state and local government contracts. APTAC represents over 90 PTACs located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.

The Academy recently conducted a FAR workshop for 165 PTAC counselors in conjunction with APTAC’s spring training conference, but APTAC board members were not able to attend that session due to a board meeting scheduled at the same time. Because of the positive feedback from attendees at that session, the July 13 training date was scheduled so board members could benefit.

Kathy Cames, an instructor for The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech, explains the FAR to members of the board of directors of the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers.

Reaction to the July 13 training session was unanimously positive. In the form of written feedback, here is a sampling of what attendees had to say:

“I expected hard-to-understand, boring and challenging content. I got comprehensive, easy-to-understand, interesting and challenging content translated into a digestible and manageable format.”
“I valued the expertise of the presenter and easy to follow course structure.”
“Superb instruction!”
“Awesome, fabulous, beyond excellent training! Written materials were far above expectations!”
“[This class provided] how to use the FAR cradle-to-grave and various resources and tools to assist my clients and my program staff.”
“Great training class and tools.”
“I valued the experience of the presenter … the ability to explain a long and difficult topic in a useful way.”
“A tailored overview — concise and targeted.”

Contact The Academy for help with your next educational workshop. Call 404-894-6109 or email info@ContractingAcademy.gatech.edu.

April 21, 2013 By AMK

Academy conducts FAR workshop at national PTAC conference

Counselors from procurement technical assistance centers (PTACs) across the country received training on the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in a workshop conducted by The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech on Sunday, April 21, 2013.

The procurement counselors are members of the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) who are attending the Association’s four-day spring training conference in Atlanta. Of the more than 300 APTAC members in attendance at the conference, 165 opted to attend the special Sunday afternoon session conducted by the Academy.

PTACs are funded, in part, by the Defense Logistics Agency to provide counseling and assistance to businesses seeking to compete successfully in federal, state and local government contracting. Ninety-three PTACs — with over 300 local offices — form a nationwide network of dedicated procurement professionals working to help local businesses in the government marketplace.

APTAC selected The Academy to create a special four-hour educational workshop. Entitled “The Complete FAR Guide for PTAC Counselors,” the workshop provided a focused and comprehensive review of those portions of the FAR that are most pertinent to the work PTAC counselors perform to assist their clients. The workshop instruction was complemented by an 187-page manual produced by The Academy exclusively for APTAC members as well as a special web page where FAR resources are available for download.

The FAR is the federal rule book governing all acquisitions made by the government. Contracting officers from virtually every federal agency follow the FAR each time they purchase any product or service, ranging from office supplies to major military systems. Understanding these rules is essential not only for those who issue contracts but also for those who are awarded government contracts.

“We were honored to conduct FAR training for the elite corps who advise businesses about government contracting,” stated Donna Bertrand, The Academy’s program manager. “PTAC counselors are on the front lines — providing assistance to businesses, especially small businesses, nationwide.”

In designing the workshop and the printed Guide, the Academy’s curriculum development team analyzed the 2,000-page FAR and selected those portions most critical to the success of businesses engaging, or hoping to engage, in government contract work. The Academy’s team then developed training modules and materials designed to assist PTAC counselors in their work with those businesses.

“In some respects, today’s workshop followed the train-the-trainer model,” said Chuck Schadl, who serves as Vice President of Education for APTAC. Schadl is in his tenth year of service with the PTAC hosted by the Georgia Institute of Technology. He collaborated with The Academy’s team to ensure that the workshop accurately addressed the day-to-day counseling issues faced by PTAC counselors. “Our objective was to provide realistic instruction and helpful tools that can be used in the everyday work performed by PTAC counselors.”

(click on photos above to enlarge images)

The Academy’s FAR workshop covered the entire spectrum of the government’s acquisition cycle — from the planning process, to contract formation, to contract administration. The workshop also provided instruction on the history of the FAR, how it is structured, and how to locate key provisions in it.

“In teaching this class,” commented instructor Kathy Cames, “I wanted the counselors to gain not only knowledge but also insights about how they can help their clients at each step in the acquisition process. For instance, there are many things a business can do to assist the government define its needs. If done correctly, this can improve a business’ opportunity to win a contract and be successful in executing it.”

In all, The Academy presented 22 specific “PTAC Tools” during the workshop — each designed to educate PTAC counselors about a specific aspect of the FAR that is especially important to PTAC clients.

At the conclusion of the workshop, each attendee was presented with a certificate of completion and was awarded 0.3 CEUs from Georgia Tech.

Click on the image below to examine the table of contents of the printed Guide which served as the outline for The Academy’s workshop:

November 15, 2011 By AMK

Small-biz set-asides may harm firms, expert says

There may already be too many set-aside categories for small businesses, according to at least one expert. The sheer number of categories, and the targets set for agencies to award certain numbers of contracts to each, has the unintended consequence of squeezing some small businesses out of the game, he said.

The plethora of small business programs “has disenfranchised many of those who are not eligible to the extent that they no longer back the very programs they once were glad to support,” Scott Bellows, a program manager at the South Carolina Procurement Technical Assistance Center in Columbia, S.C., said Nov. 7.

And yet, the government is now considering creating yet another category, for businesses that employ military veterans.

During a hearing, Bellows told the House Small Business Committee’s Contracting and Workforce Subcommittee that the small-business programs, such as those helping companies owned by service-disabled veteran and women, and the 8(a) companies, don’t do as much as most people think to help small businesses at large.

Many of the same contractors tend to get the work over and over. That makes it hard for other small companies to break into the market, he said.

To break in, business owners “soon realize that it’s a long, uphill battle,” he said.

Bellows said the government, along with the Small Business Administration’s annual small business score card, should take a different look at the awarded set-aside contracts.

“If one asks how many ‘unique’ vendor contracts were awarded during a certain period of time, you might just come away with a different impression of how these programs are promoting small business development and helping to revitalize our economy,” he said.

The score card gave the government overall a B in awarding contracts to small businesses in fiscal 2010. The government has a goal to award 23 percent of contracts to small companies. In 2010, it reached 22.7 percent. It missed many of its goals for the specific categories of small businesses.

President Barack Obama’s Interagency Task Force on Veterans Small Business Development has recommended the government should consider giving companies with at least 35 percent of its employees as veterans a special status in federal contracting. They likened the new category to the Historically Underutilized Business Zone small business program. For HUBZone status, 35 percent of a small firm’s employees must live in an economically depressed zone.

The task force said the new small-business category would not take too much regulatory efforts. The task force wants the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments, as well as SBA and the Office of Management and Budget, to further explore the idea.

The task force is interested in the hiring aspect of creating the new category.

About the Author: Matthew Weigelt is a senior writer covering acquisition and procurement at Federal Computer Week. Published Nov. 9, 2011 at http://fcw.com/articles/2011/11/09/set-aside-small-business-programs-other-small-business-effects.aspx.

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