Draft_PWS_PE_127.pdf

1 | P a g e

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

Petroleum and Gas Industry (PE 127)

Facilitator

The U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) Foreign Service Institute (FSI) provides training and professional development to civilian personnel of the DOS and the foreign affairs community.

The School of Economic and Commercial Studies (ECON) Division of the School of Professional Studies (SPAS) at FSI provides members of the foreign affairs community with the knowledge, skills, and tools they require to analyze overseas economic and commercial developments and assist U.S. firms seeking advice, market access, trade and investment opportunities, defending investment and trade rights, and participating in overseas projects to promote the growth of U.S. jobs.

The Petroleum and Gas Industry course, offered by ECON in conjunction with the Department of State Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR), prepares officers to advocate for American oil and gas companies in overseas markets where American companies have a significant or growing presence.

The participants are mid-level Foreign Service Officers with three to ten years of work experience in the economic and commercial career path. Foreign Service National employees (residents of the host country working in U.S. embassies abroad) and U.S. Government Civil Servants who work in or preparing to work in, an energy officer position overseas or in Washington with significant responsibilities for monitoring and advocating U.S. Government’s energy policies in bilateral and multilateral settings.

Background FSI provides training and professional development to personnel of the Department of State and is the federal government’s primary training institution for Department personnel and other U.S.

Government foreign affairs professionals. FSI’s mission is to develop the men and women needed to advance and defend U.S. interests. FSI offers more than 700 classroom courses, including some 70 foreign languages, about 270 custom-developed distance-learning products, and about 2,700 commercial distance-learning courses available via Internet. Annual enrollment exceeds 100,000 students.

Contract Task FSI requires a contractor to provide services to DOS and the FSI to facilitate delivery of the Petroleum and Gas Industry course.

This will include perform a course review and design, develop materials and presentations for the course following FSI and SPAS approved policies, standards, and procedures; handle administrative details for the course to include (but not limited to) scheduling presenters; deliver the course; review the design of the course post implementation and at least bi-annually and recommend improvements based in part on course evaluations; deliver lectures in the course; and provide any required site visits. The course will be offered up to three times during the period of one year.

2 | P a g e

The contractor will make available presenters and panelists who are subject matter experts on the structure and technology of the oil and gas industries, the global oil and gas market, energy economics, characteristics of US oil and gas firms, and the US government’s international energy policy. The contractor will provide participants with non-technical background reading material to reinforce the presentations and discussions.

The contractor will be responsible for delivering the course in a format with presentation methods that reinforce comprehension and absorption of the course material, including tours of representative energy sites such as oil rigs, factories, engineering centers and consultancies and any other site that offers a “hands on” experience for participants. The contractor will provide participants, through organized activities, opportunities to make contacts with firms and individuals across a broad spectrum of the petroleum and petroleum equipment industries and civil society.

5.1 The period of performance will be five (5) one year base periods.

5.2 The primary location will be in an oil and gas production/processing locale of the United States. Contractor will be responsible, at their expense, for providing the necessary physical course facilities (conference or classroom) and local transportation to and from various demonstration facilities and site visits on the course agenda. The Government will not provide local transportation or parking costs.

Contractor will not/not be responsible for paying participants’ roundtrip transportation from Washington, or any other city, to the course base location, or for participants’ overnight accommodations, or per diem or for meal and incidental allowances.

5.3 The Contractor, in consultation with ECON and ENR will:

Organize and conduct the Petroleum and Gas Industry course.

Consult with FSI and ENR to determine major course topics, prospective speakers, and appropriate field trips.

Provide weekly schedules for each class offering, detailing topics and presenters.

Invite and coordinate presentations by guest lecturers, and tours of energy sites, ensuring they conform to the necessary scope and objectives to fulfill the requirements of the course design.

Make arrangements for field trips or any other offsite class activities, as appropriate. Contractor will assume all responsibility for all classroom logistical requirements (projectors, video equipment, computers, whiteboards, etc.

Provide a final design at least four weeks prior to the course start date.

3 | P a g e

Prepare and distribute to each participant a packet of organized readings and the course schedule, assuming responsibility for preparation, duplication and copyright permissions, if any.

Brief speakers and discussants on terms of participation in the course, draft appropriate invitation, follow-up and thank you letters.

Assume responsibility for any honoraria and travel costs.

Introduce guest lecturers/energy site presentations, lead class discussions, and present study materials.

In consultation with ECON, design and facilitate appropriate exercises to ensure learning of complex material and generate an interactive environment.

Be present and accompany students to site visits for the three and a half-day duration of the course. In the event that a Course Facilitator cannot be present, he or she must provide the COR with a minimum of three weeks advance notice in the form of a written request for permission to be absent. The written request must state a reason for the absence.

If a substitute for the Course Facilitator is suggested, that person must receive prior approval by the Economic and Commercial Studies Deputy Director or Director, and all substitutes must have equivalent verifiable experience. Successful past performance in training for the U. S.

government is highly desirable.

If the request is approved, the Course Facilitator may invoice for the given session and must compensate the substitute from the funds he/she receives from the contract.

5.3.1 The Course Facilitator shall provide the following administrative services:

Identify with ECON and ENR concurrence subject matter experts and arrange for guest lectures by such experts from Government, academic, diplomatic and business fields, as appropriate.

Hold a phone/video conference with the Director or Deputy Director ECON and/or COR within two months after each course presentation to undertake an after action review of the most recent courses and discuss course planning and revisions.

Advise ECON when there is a change of speakers.

Require students to sign the sign-in sheets for Registration credit provided by the ECON support staff and enforce the 100 percent attendance policy; all requests for excused absence must be directed to the ECON Deputy Director.

5.4 Classroom Instruction

The contractor shall deliver the three and a half-day classroom based course, eight hours per day, during normal FSI class hours for a class size of between 10-30 students.

5.5 Course Structure and Design

http://reg.fsi.state.sbu/CourseCatalog.aspx?ThemeId=ECON

4 | P a g e

Course Structure: The contractor will deliver the course in a manner consistent with FSI’s Policies and Standards for Curriculum and Evaluation as well as SPAS standard curriculum procedures (attached), working collaboratively with FSI’s subject matter experts, including co-facilitation of certain sessions with diplomats or policymakers of FSI’s choosing.

1. The course design should reflect the basic principles of adult learning theory, presenting material in highly interactive ways that build on the experience and knowledge that participants bring to the course, enabling them to generalize from class material and apply their learning to their individual work assignment.

2. Learning objectives for each course segment should be clear, and training methodologies should be tailored so that they reinforce comprehension and absorption of the course content for each segment. For example, depending on the learning objective, student exercises, panel discussions, student interviews with experts, case studies, simulations or role-plays may be appropriate.

3. The course design should also make use of highly qualified and well-placed technical experts who are capable of presenting their knowledge in an interactive style.

4. The course design should also reflect the reality of serving at U.S. diplomatic missions overseas and the dynamics of the interagency process in Washington.

5.6 Personnel Qualifications

Subject matter expertise (SME): Presenters, panelists and instructors must have the following qualifications:

• Experts on the structure and technology of the oil and gas industries, the global oil and gas market, energy economics, characteristics of US oil and gas firms, and the US government’s international energy policy.

• Demonstrated experience in dealing with complex oil and gas issues, commercial oil and gas policies and technologies and government oil and gas policies.

• Demonstrated experience in developing and delivering adult education programs – particularly those dealing with complex energy issues and government energy policies.

• Evidence of collaboration with diverse stakeholders in the foreign affairs and/or government foreign policy environment.

• Experience in delivering adult learning courses which actively engage students, or willingness to work with SPAS/ECON and FSI’s instructional designers as needed to create appropriate experiential elements given the technical content.

The contractor will use the key person or persons identified as the course instructors in its proposal to the U.S. government. Substitutions will not be made without prior notification and approval of the Contracting Officer. Request for substitutions will meet or exceed the qualifications of the person to be replaced. The Contracting Officer will be notified in writing

5 | P a g e of any requests no later than forty-five days prior to the start date. Requests to substitute will include:

An explanation of the circumstances necessitating the substitution;

A complete resume of the proposed substitute Any pertinent information requested by the Contracting Officer to determine if the contractor is maintaining the standard.

5.7 Security Clearance Requirements

None

Period of performance The course scheduled shall be from 9:00 am to 4:45 pm daily and 9:00 – 1:00 pm on the final day. For fiscal year 2019, the course will be held early February and mid-August, exact dates to be determined at least six months in advance. FSI will notify contractor of scheduled course dates in subsequent years of the contract at the beginning of each respective calendar year. FSI may change these dates at its discretion, with advance 30-day notice to the contractor.

Tentative course dates are:

• February Session 2019

• August Session 2019

• February Session 2020

• August Session 2020

• February Session 2021

• August Session 2021

• February Session 2022

• August Session 2022

• February Session 2023

• August Session 2023

Actual course dates will be verified by the COR.

Performance Metrics

All BPA Calls issued will be monitored by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) and will be reported at the conclusion of each agreement year.

Listed below are the performance metrics by which the contractor will be evaluated in addition to the contractor’s adherence to SOW requirements.

The contractor must be considered successful in fulfilling the requirements in order to continue to be considered for future opportunities. To be considered successful the contractor shall score a minimum of four (4) in all categories listed below. The contractor will be evaluated using a scale (Poor 1- Superior 5).

6 | P a g e

5 - Superior:

Contractor routinely demonstrates outstanding understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course segments and significantly exceeds performance standards. Contractor has exceptional strengths that significantly benefit the Government.

4 - Excellent:

Contractor demonstrates excellent understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course segments and exceeds performance standards. Contractor has one or more strengths that significantly benefit the Government.

3 - Acceptable:

Contractor demonstrates acceptable understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course segments and has an approach that meets performance standards. Contractor is an acceptable solution and has few or no strengths that provide significant or exceptional benefit to the Government.

2 - Fair:

Contractor routinely demonstrates shallow understanding of SOW requirements for the awarded course segments and approach.

1 - Poor:

Contractor routinely fails to demonstrate understanding of SOW requirements and approach.

Quality

The contractor must adhere to the requirements outlined in the SOW and facilitate a high-quality, coherent, appropriate adult educational program, specific to the course design the contractor is awarded to deliver. Multiple measurements will be used to formulate a rating between 1-5 including student feedback, student course evaluations, review of teaching materials and delivery by course chair(s), and observations by both the Economic Training Division leadership and the

COR.

Timeliness of Performance

The contractor must adhere to the deadlines specified by the COR with regard to providing training materials, delivering training, and/or participating in debriefs with the course chair as outlined in the Task Order. The rating from 1 to 5 will be formulated by the COR based on his/her observation and input from the Economic Training Division leadership.

Business Relations/Customer Satisfaction

The contractor must provide effective customer service to the internal FSI clients of this BPA Setup – COR, and Economic Training Division staff and students – per contractor duties in the SOW. The COR will use individual expertise and general observance of interactions and customer service with FSI staff, and students. A rating from 1 to 5 will be tabulated for this

7 | P a g e evaluation based on student feedback, FSI staff feedback, and COR observations. The COR observations will include timeliness of responses to inquiries and requests within the scope of the contract and delivery of training.

Government Provided Property

∗ Classroom facilities at 4000 Arlington Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia or other area sites to be specified;

∗ Audio-visual equipment available at FSI;

∗ All necessary course materials within the budget and funding availability.

The U.S. Government will not provide

∗ Sick or annual leave;

∗ Parking facilities – presenter has to pay parking fee;

∗ Secretarial support in the Transition Center suite;

∗ Cost reimbursable expenses beyond the direct labor cost of this purchase order;

∗ Retirement plan, health benefits, or life insurance benefits;

∗ Responsibility for the loss of any personal property belonging to the contractor which he/she may have brought to the work place.