Adult Education and Immigrant Integration

Thank you for your patience. The solicitation is hereby issued. The due date for questions is October 22, 2012 at 12:00 pm ET. The due date for proposal is November 15, 2012 at 12:00 pm ET. The contract specialist is changed from Colin Alleyne to Sara Steinberger, 202-245-8061.

The solicitation has been delayed in the review process. The Department is still planning on proceeding with this requirement. Hopefully, the solicitation will be issued in the next week or so. The contract award date will slip into the lst quarter of FY 13.

The U.S. Department of Education (Department), Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE)), anticipates the release of the subject solicitation on or about July 27, 2012. It is determined that these services are commercial as defined in FAR Part 2.101. Based on the results of market research, it is determined that commercial sources are available and capable of satisfying this requirement. All interested parties are eligible to submit a proposal to fulfill this requirement.

A solicitation will be issued to obtain services to assist in OVAE's need for a better understanding of how Adult Education can 1) improve immigrants' access to effective and innovative English language programs, 2) support immigrants on the path to citizenship, and 3) support career development through training and education, OVAE is seeking proposals to identify effective models to support immigrant integration, devise technical assistance to help states and local communities plan and implement these models, plan for sustainability, and support the demonstration of innovative new models.

Description:

According to the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), there are approximately 38 million foreign born individuals living in the United States. This number quadrupled from 9.6 million in 1970. Immigrants bring a great deal to this country: innovation, entrepreneurship, linguistic and cultural diversity, some are highly educated and bring specialized skills and training; those that are less educated often meet specific workforce and industry needs, and immigrants often bring linguistic and cultural backgrounds that are needed in our increasingly diverse workforce.

Immigration continues to have a significant effect on both the general U.S. population and the U.S. workforce. Not only is America's labor force expected to grow much more slowly over the next 20 years than it did between 1980 and 2000, but also almost none of the recent workforce growth is coming from native-born workers. For example, between 2000 and 2005, two-thirds of the nation's civilian labor-force growth and 86 percent of its employment growth was generated by new immigrant arrivals.

The United States faces many local, state and national challenges when the full integration of its immigrants is hindered: a lack of linguistically diverse and culturally competent workforce and professionals in such high-demand fields as Healthcare, Education, IT, Law, Government service, Management; a smaller hiring pools of qualified workers; a weakened civic structure due to limited civic engagement; and less family engagement in children's education.

To address known gaps in immigrant integration and to build a sustainable foundation for future efforts, the White House created an interagency task force which launched the New Americans: Citizenship and Integration Initiative. This initiative seeks to identify best practices and to gain helpful insight into how the federal government can shine a spotlight on successful models of immigrant integration. The Initiative has identified three important pillars of immigrant integration. They are:

• Linguistic integration
• Civic integration
• Economic integration

This Initiative defines successful economic integration as occurring when both employers and workers understand their rights and workers have the resources to excel and obtain economic and financial self-sufficiency. There should be a level playing field for all workers that promotes diverse, healthy, and safe environments as well as mutual respect for all parties. Among the strategies under consideration by the Initiative for achieving economic integration is supporting career development through training and education.

Purpose and Objective

To achieve the primary purpose of this contract, in collaboration with OVAE, the contractor shall meet the following objectives:

1. Manage the project to ensure accountability and successful outcomes.

2. Convene a Technical Work Group (TWG) to advise the contractor and ED throughout the project.

3. Articulate a framework to guide technical assistance and create a technical assistance implementation plan that is evidence-based and designed to support place-based initiatives to leveraging strategic partnerships to promote linguistic, civic and economic integration for low- and high-skilled immigrants.

4. Select place-based immigrant integration initiatives to receive technical assistance.

5. Deliver and document the effectiveness of the technical assistance, and based on documentation, provide recommendations for replication of these now evidence-based, effective integration models and practices.

6. Disseminate lessons learned about coordination of services for immigrants to promote linguistic, civic and economic integration

The period of performance shall be thirty six (36) months from the effective date of this contract. A Firm Fixed Price contract is planned for this procurement.

The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational & Adult Education (OVAE) is seeking a contractor for the new procurement, Adult Education and Immigrant Integration. The purpose of the Performance Work Statement (PWS) is to develop a technical assistance model based upon the three pillars of immigrant integration: linguistic, civic and economic. The Department requires technical expertise in designing an integrative and innovative approach that will reduce linguistic, academic, and employment barriers for skilled and low-skilled immigrants and refugees, and to integrate them into the U.S. workforce and professions. The Department is currently engaged in market research to identify potential offerors, clarify OVAE's requirements, and remove barriers to maximize competition.

Interested parties are invited to participate in a Webinar on Wednesday, May 9, 2012, at 1:30 p.m. ET, when the Department will share its vision and goals for the procurement. Please indicate your interest for the webinar by emailing Colin Alleyne, colin.alleyne@ed.gov with a cc to sheryl.adler@ed.gov.

Interested parties are requested to submit capability statements, comments on the draft PWS and identify any barriers to competition.  For additional information on the webinar, the request for capability statements and the draft PWS, please see the attachments.