Instructional Services for the Institute for Conflict Management in the area of Arbitration

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) anticipates issuing solicitation FMCS-RQ-0006 soon for instructional services for the Institute for Conflict Management in the area of Arbitration.  FMCS is an independent federal agency with the mission of promoting stable labor-management relationships through collective bargaining mediation and other dispute resolution services.  The FMCS also maintains a roster of highly qualified, independent labor arbitrators, who the parties may jointly select from lists provided by the FMCS to arbitrate their contractual disputes.  In addition, the FMCS furthers its mission through the Institute for Conflict Management training services.

The FMCS Institute for Conflict Management delivers conflict resolution training that is accessible, practical, experience-based and directed towards individuals and small groups of employees and managers. The Institute's training programs provide participants the opportunity to interact with and learn from experienced practitioners who use these skills every day.

FMCS will be seeking contractors under multiple award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity Contracts* to teach the following courses for the FMCS Institute for Conflict Management.   The first course, Becoming a Labor Arbitrator, is highly sought after by those aspiring to become labor arbitrators to develop the experience and acceptability needed to be chosen by the parties to resolve their contractual disputes.  In addition, the Institute offers three courses for individuals who present cases to arbitrators.  These include: Arbitration for Advocates; Arbitration for Advocates in the Federal Sector; and Evidence and Witness Examination in Arbitration.  These courses are designed to train labor advocates and to improve arbitration practice in the public and private sectors.  Individual offerors will be able to bid on teaching a single course, or multiple courses.

The planned opening date for this solicitation is early February, and will close mid-February.  Please watch Fed-Biz Ops https://www.fbo.gov/ for additional information. The solicitation number is FMCS-RQ-0006.  This effort is a successor effort to FMCS-2012-RQ-0002 which was canceled by the FMCS.  Offerors under that effort must resubmit under FMCS-RQ-0006 in order to be considered for award.

*Within the context of this solicitation this is a type of contract that provides for an indefinite quantity of training within a fixed duration of time (one year) although the actual training times during the year may vary based on the needs of the FMCS.