Training | The Contracting Education Academy

August 14, 2015 By cs

Postal Service purchase card program needs better oversight, new audit finds

A new U.S. Postal Service audit found inadequate oversight in regards to the use of expense purchase cards despite policies and procedures in place.

The USPS inspector general (IG) said in an Aug. 7, 2015 report that, of the 209 transactions – worth $72,333 – it reviewed, 133 were missing the required documentation. And, of those missing, 51 were made without proper approval.

Additionally, cardholders for 42 percent of the transactions and approving officials for 41 percent either did not take the required expense purchase card training or could not provide proof of completion, the IG said.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/postal-service-purchase-card-program-needs-better-oversight-new-audit-finds/2015-08-12

July 29, 2015 By cs

Rotational training: A road to broader experience

Most contracting managers (indeed most professionals) will point to past experiences that prepared them for current and future challenges.

Common sense indicates that exposure to diverse work environments experiences, tasks, managers, strategies, or knowledge provides a deeper background and preparation for subsequent broader career complexities.

Rotational programs are a way to obtain broader experience, in preparation for future higher management roles down the road. Once completed, such programs can better ensure participants can fulfill their current responsibilities, having received a stronger understanding of other perspectives and functions.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/acquisition/blog/2015/07/20/rotational-training-road-broader-experience/30412283/

January 28, 2015 By cs

Survey: Acquisition workforce falling behind on training

The buyers of products and services across government are not receiving the fresh training or modern skill sets needed to innovate and acquire the complex technology called for in today’s agency missions, according to a survey of federal acquisition employees released on Thursday.

“The acquisition workforce’s skills in areas such as business acumen, negotiation, risk mitigation and understanding complex information technology fall well short of what acquisition professionals say is required,” said Stan Soloway, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council. PSC and Grant Thornton prepared the seventh edition of a biannual survey titled “A Closing Window: Are We Missing the Opportunity for Change?”

“This not a failure of the workforce,” Soloway said, “but a result of our collective slowness to recognize the need for major change” in education and support.

In a session with reporters, he cited frustrations over a “growing gap” between acquisition specialists and the end users who increasingly say the technology being delivered isn’t suitable.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2015/01/survey-acquisition-workforce-falling-behind-training/103512/

See more on this topic at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=1719

November 10, 2014 By cs

Academy returns to D.C. to train business counselors

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech returned to the nation’s capital on November 9th to provide training to 160 counselors who work for Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs) across the country.

PTACs — supported by the Defense Logistics Agency and local hosts in 300 cities in the United States, Guam and Puerto Rico — work with tens of thousands of businesses who seek advice on how to identify and win government contracts. The trade group that represents PTACs — the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) — is holding its membership training conference in Washington, D.C., this week (November 9-12, 2014).

Academy Instructor Kevin Grimes explains the "Seven Principles of PTAC Counseling" to an audience of 160 counselors from across the country. — Academy Instructor Kevin Grimes explains the “Seven Principles of PTAC Counseling” to an audience of 160 counselors from across the country.

For the first day of the conference Georgia Tech’s Contracting Academy designed and presented a customized, four-hour training session entitled “Counseling Businesses for Government Contracting Success.” The session consisted of limited lecture, instead relying heavily on a series of seven instructor-guided case studies which class participants worked-through in teams. The case studies reinforced “The Seven Principles of PTAC Counseling” which the Academy developed based on research conducted earlier in the year.

Participants in the training also were given the opportunity to develop “personal action plans” during the workshop, setting goals for improving their individual performance as business counselors in the coming year. The Academy provided action plan templates and suggested performance improvement ideas throughout the workshop. A set of electronic resources also were made available to the counselors on a web site designed especially for them.

One popular feature of the training session was a game, developed by the Academy’s instructional design team exclusively for participants, called “Government Lingo Bingo.” Each workshop attendee was given a unique bingo card, containing a set of acronyms associated with government contracting. Based on the instructor’s use of acronyms during the workshop, participants circled corresponding acronyms on their cards. Any time during the workshop participants had a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line of circled acronyms, they called out “Government Lingo Bingo!” But the game didn’t end there. Only if they could correctly state what each acronym stood for, did participants win a prize.

PTAC personnel from across the country learned counseling skills. — PTAC personnel from across the country worked in 20 teams on 7 case studies prepared by the Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech.

Each student was also given a 90-page workbook containing a detailed discussion of counseling techniques, including a “Glossary of Government Contracting Terms” to encourage them to look-up and learn new government terminology.

In post-workshop evaluations, 97% of attendees rated the session met expectations or exceeded expectations.

This is the fourth time the Academy has been invited by APTAC to provide half-day training to its general membership. The Academy’s instructor Kevin Grimes conducted the November 9th workshop. Chuck Schadl, Group Manager of Government Contracting Services, and Donna Bertrand, the Academy’s Program Manager, coordinated workshop details.

October 8, 2014 By cs

Senate report contributes to discussion about acquisition reform and support for training

Last week, the U.S. Senate published a compendium of expert views on acquisition reform within the Department of Defense (DoD). While the report contains no recommendations from the Senate itself, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations points out that the report documents shortcomings in the acquisition process that may serve to guide Congressional deliberations in the future.

The Oct. 2, 2014 report, entitled “Defense Acquisition Reform: Where Do We Go from Here?”, contains the views of 31 government Defense policy and procurement experts. Significantly,

Nearly half of the experts feel that cultural change is required while over two-thirds believe improving incentives for the acquisition workforce is necessary for reform.
Two-thirds of the contributors feel that training and recruiting of the acquisition workforce must be improved.
Nearly half believe that DOD needs to attain realistic requirements at the start of a major acquisition program that includes budget-informed decisions.
More than half of the submissions noted the need for strong accountability and leadership throughout the life-cycle of a weapon system – with several experts stating the need to further integrate the Service Chiefs into the acquisition process.

About 70 percent of the report’s contributors express the view that although Congress has taken steps to address deficiencies in DoD’s acquisition workforce, more should be taken. Several contributors state that the Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Fund (DAWDF), which Congress established in 2008 to ensure that the acquisition workforce has the skills to ensure the DoD receives the best value for taxpayer dollars, should be continued and strengthened.

Former Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) Dan Gordon, now Associate Dean at George Washington University Law School, states in the report that improvements in training through Defense Acquisition University (DAU) coursework will help the acquisition workforce “buy smarter” in the current budget environment. Gordon notes that of the three phases of the contracting process — planning, award, and administration — the “weak links in our procurement system [are] poor acquisition planning, especially poor definitions of what the government is trying to buy, and lax contract management.” These two problematic areas, notes Gordon, “are those least amenable to legislation” and instead tend to rely on the experience, judgment, and training of acquisition professionals.

Gordon calls for “better training for purchasing services, and creation of specialized acquisition cadres, at least in large entities such as the military services, to help run procurements in areas that demand education and experience in the field, such as the acquisition of IT and professional services.”

Many of the report’s contributors believe that DoD should create a clear career path for acquisition professionals similar to the military promotion system and designate acquisition billets to be on the same level as operational billets. According to those contributors, that may grant more opportunity for promotion, thereby attracting a higher quality workforce.

The report includes input from many current and former officials, including the Pentagon’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics chief Frank Kendall; former Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman retired Gen. James Cartwright; former acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine Fox; former Chief of Naval Operations retired Adm. Gary Roughead; former Air Force Chief of Staff retired Gen. Norton Schwartz; former F-35 program manager retired Vice Adm. David Venlet; and former President of the Defense Acquisition University Frank Anderson.

The full report is available here: Defense Acquisition Reform – A Compendium of Views – 10.02.2014

A new U.S. Postal Service audit found inadequate oversight in regards to the use of expense purchase cards despite policies and procedures in place.

Most contracting managers (indeed most professionals) will point to past experiences that prepared them for current and future challenges.

Search this Website