DLI-W Foreign Language Training and Training Support Services

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT FOR MARKET RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. The purpose of this announcement is to gain knowledge of potential qualified small or large business firms. Responses to this Source Sought will be used by the Government in making appropriate acquisition decisions. The Mission and Installation Contracting Command (MICC) - Fort Eustis intends to procure contract support services for the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC). The Government anticipates the award of a Single Award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) with the ability to issue Firm Fixed Price (FFP), Labor Hour (LH), and T&M task orders. Contract line items will include, FFP, LH (several CLINs), and Cost. DLIFLC provides culturally based foreign language education, training, evaluation and sustainment to enhance the security of the nation here and abroad. Its vision is to deliver the world's best culturally based foreign language education and training in languages encompassing every region of the world - at the point of need. As the Defense Department's premier foreign language provider, DLIFLC in Monterey, CA teaches 21 languages annually to over 3,500 students from all four branches of the military service. Additionally, DLI-Washington trains over 900 students annually in 62-65 languages under the Contract Foreign Language Program (CFLTP). DLIFLC requires language training and training support services beyond those available at its training facility at the Presidio of Monterey, California. The program is conducted in the National Capital Region under the Director, DLI Washington through the CFLTP. The purpose of the CFLTP is to provide to the users (Military Services and the Defense Attaché System) language training with the utmost flexibility. The CFLTP also serves as a contingency, rapid-response language training provider for DoD. This training is provided for authorized personnel and their adult family members, as required for effective performance of their duties in connection with programs of the Department of Defense or other Federal agencies. Training under this contract is driven by DoD responsibilities and missions. Requirements are driven by world events and the Government's political-military priorities. It should be anticipated that relatively more training will be required in languages native to large numbers of countries than in those spoken as the official language in relatively fewer countries. The Contractor shall provide foreign language training instruction and support services and instruction. Typical student load is 200-400 resident students at any given time. Hundreds more are trained under DLIFLC and DLI Washington Office auspices at the Government's facilities elsewhere in the US. Courses range from familiarization courses of a few weeks to full basic courses of 26-64 weeks. As part of this contract, approximately 275 - 300 requirements will be awarded annually. This contract calls for the use of established, professional foreign language schools to perform the duties defined in the PWS. The Contractor shall provide resident foreign language instruction at the Contractor's facility in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area and within walking distance of metro rail transportation, or occasionally at Government facilities in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area or elsewhere. Training will be provided to individual students or to small groups generally not exceeding five (5) students. Management, oversight, and infrastructure must be sufficient to support at least 200 full-time individual or small-group classes simultaneously. Vendors must have capability for surge or expansion as needed due to increased requirements with possible heavy concentration in one or a small number of languages. The program emphasizes creativity and flexibility to meet the unique instructional needs of a diverse student population. Regardless of the stated end-of-course objectives, training must engage the students' higher order thinking skills (analyze, evaluate, create) by employing task-based and project-based instruction throughout the course. The Contractor must provide instructors who are educated native speakers of the current standard form of the language/dialect they will teach. They are expected to have a facility with learning technologies, including wide use of Internet sources, and the ability to adapt to students with varying learning styles a requiring different learning strategies. They must possess a Baccalaureate degree or higher or equivalent, and have at least three years' successful relevant experience in teaching adults using proficiency-oriented methods and materials aimed at ILR skill levels 2 and 3. Successful relevant experience of at least four years' experience in teaching the target language to adult learners in an intensive, proficiency-oriented environment, are experienced in teaching adults using proficiency-oriented methods and materials aimed at ILR skill levels 2 and 3. For the purposes of this contract, intensive training is defined as follows: The student is studying full-time, four to eight hours per day, with no other duties during the period of his training. The occasional requirement for development of training materials requires personnel with higher-level skills: English proficiency at or approaching level 3; wide experience with the use of the Internet to locate appropriate authentic materials; and computer literacy sufficient to production of web-delivered learning materials. Both, delivery of resident training and curriculum development are to be overseen by Contractor personnel with experience and/or credentials in second language acquisition and the utilization of language skills in the performance of U.S. Government and Department of Defense missions. Formative evaluation and academic counseling are required. Language training supervisors must have at least six years of experience in foreign language teaching and proficiency testing and a Bachelor's degree (or equivalent). At least 80 percent of supervisors must have academic credentials in second language acquisition or a related field (ideally at a graduate-level). The Contractor is expected to locate, acquire and compile into coherent curricula such learning materials, including authentic materials, as are necessary to meet the goals of each student. At all levels of proficiency, from the beginner to advanced, level- and topic-appropriate lessons, materials and activities must be utilized to generate as much uninhibited, spontaneous manipulation of the language as possible and to advance the students' proficiency in all three measured skills. The Contractor is responsible for providing all necessary classroom facilities, including routine access to video and audio materials as well as Internet sources. These premises shall be located in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Additionally, requirements are expected for Mobile Training Team (MTT) instruction on Government installations in CONUS, with general oversight provided by DLIFLC or other DoD onsite training managers. These requirements vary in length from days to months or longer, in levels of training from familiarization to professional proficiency, in languages from commonly-taught to those less-commonly-taught but of high national security priority, and in quantity from a single instructor to dozens. Long-distance support and quality control of the instructor corps and their work remains the Contractor's responsibility during the MTT. Curriculum tailored to the specifics of the mission is generally required and is also the responsibility of the Contractor. The actual level-of-effort (actual number of requirements, classes, students, languages) per fiscal year (FY) is not known at the time of placing the contract and cannot be estimated accurately. Historically, the number of students, languages, and dates of training for each is unknown. In addition to the unpredictability of the required training, there are multiple factors affecting the duration and ability to complete training. Some examples of those factors are changes in the student's mission and curtailment or extensions of the training time. The training will take into consideration the student's previous linguistic knowledge and ability of the student to learn a new language, as well as, refresher training requirements. The language training is often required on short notice, 2 - 6 weeks or less. The current Multiple Award IDIQ contracts were awarded on 7 July 2011 as full and open competition with a partial set aside to two or more small business vendors with a period of performance for a base year and four one-year options. The Multiple Award IDIQ contracts were non-commercial T&M contracts and the maximum program value was $96M. Basis of award for the base level contracts were tradeoff and the basis of award for the task orders were lowest priced technically acceptable (LPTA) and tradeoff. Six Multiple Award IDIQ contracts were award. The following three contracts were awarded to small businesses: Dictyon, LLC - W911S0-11-D-0040; International Center for Language Studies, Inc. (ICLS) - W911S0-11-D-0041; and JTG, Inc. - W911S0-11-D-0042. The following three contracts were awarded to large businesses: General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc. (GDIT) - W911S0-11-D-0043; International Communications Associates, Inc. (ICA) - W911S0-11-D-0044 and; Language Associates, LLC doing business as Diplomatic Language Services (DLS) - W911S0-11-D-0045. The NAICS Code for this requirement is 611630 - Language Schools. Small Business Size Standard: Not to Exceed $11,000,000.00 gross annual receipts. NOTE: If, after reviewing the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS), your firm believes another NAICS code is more appropriate, provide the rationale and justification. After review of the responses to this Sources Sought announcement, a synopsis and/or solicitation announcement may be published at a later time. Capability statements in response to this notice shall include the following information and shall not exceed eight (8) pages (documents submitted in response to J and K below will not count against this limit): a) Company name, business address, address of your language school, CAGE code, and points of contact with telephone numbers and email addresses. b) Business size/classification in regard to NAICS 611630, and acknowledge all applicable socioeconomic category information of the company (i.e., 8(a), HUBZone, Women Owned Small Business, Veteran Owned Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business, Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, etc.). c) Number of Employees - how many teachers, language supervisors, and staff. Describe your recruitment, retention and retention professional development strategies in terms of instructor/supervisor qualifications (IAW with PWS). d) Average annual revenue for the last three (3) years. Please describe your monthly working capital in relation to the info below. • Under this contract, invoicing is done on a monthly basis for services rendered during the previous month. DLI-W conducts a thorough review of the invoices before approving for payment in WAWF. • A single vendor would also have to have significant working capital to be able to sustain operations (payroll, increased facility costs) during a receivable period of approximately 60 days (invoice to payment). • This would require the vendor to front load approximately $2 - 2.5 million for resident classes before being paid by the government. • This does not include expenses for MTTs where there is SIGNIFICANT front-loading of travel costs (hotels, flights, per diem) or expenses related to curriculum development supervisors, SMEs and the facilities to support curriculum development projects. e) Do you believe that a single vendor can successfully execute the entirety of this contract while maintaining the flexibility, scalability and quality requirements of the contract? Please explain. f) Do you believe your company has the capability and experience to execute the entirety of this contract as a single vendor? Explain why. g) Your company's capability to do this type of work. Documentation of relevant technical expertise, capability, and capacity must be presented in sufficient detail for the Government to determine that your company possesses the necessary functional area expertise and experience to compete for this acquisition. Reply should address the company's expertise and qualifications as it pertains to the details of the PWS. h) Please provide a description of the current, established school facilities used in carrying out the work of the contracts reflected above. Provide the location, capacity, and furnishings of the facility, their suitability for intensive language learning, including ready access to equipment like computers, internet, audio and video support. If the location is not in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, please explain your plans for establishing a facility meeting the criteria in the PWS. Please address a strategy for space expansion beyond the minimum requirement of the contract, if required due to mission surge. i) Please provide detailed descriptions of similar relevant requirements your company has performed in the past (tasks, volume, scope, complexity, contract type, contract value, period of performance, client, and award date): - Was it for full-time or part-time training (as defined in the PWS)? - How many students trained? Class size? Groups or one-on-one? - Which languages? - What were the proficiency objectives or the desired end-result? - Tailored training (in what way) or generic for all? - What did the contract require concerning instructor qualifications? j) While the list of languages in the PWS is not finite, for the purposes of this RFI, please address what level of expertise and relevant experience you have provided in language training in all of the following languages: French, Arabic (Modern Standard), Chinese-Mandarin, Serbian/Croatian, Hindi, Hebrew, Turkish, and Portuguese. Please provide one sample hourly lesson plan for the mid-point of a full basic course in any of the languages listed above. k) Please describe your ability to identify and procure learning materials in all media appropriate to the variety of languages and levels anticipated. Please submit a sample list of instructional materials, including course books, references and authentic materials, either on hand or readily accessible, which will be used with the lesson plan submitted in response to "j" above. ? l) Do you have a system of student feedback/critiques? Please describe it and also describe what steps may be taken in response of such feedback. It is imperative that businesses responding to this sources sought announcement articulate their capabilities clearly and adequately regarding each functional area listed. Industry input is also requested on the DRAFT PWS that is attached. Let us know if DRAFT PWS is clear concise, and free of any ambiguities. The estimated period of performance is a five year ordering period. Responses will only be accepted via e-mail. Telephonic responses will not be honored. Please send your responses to MICC - Fort Eustis by 1:00 PM EDT, Thursday, March 31, 2016. Submissions may be sent to Curtis Arthur II at [email protected]. This is NOT a Request for Proposal. IF A SOLICITATION IS ISSUED, IT WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT A LATER DATE. All interested parties shall respond to that solicitation announcement separately from this sources sought announcement. No award will result from this sources sought announcement. No reimbursements will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement. This notice does not constitute any commitment by the Government.