Jump to content

uva383

Members
  • Posts

    44
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Blog Comments posted by uva383

  1. Don,

    Question as I'm using your matrix to review a solicitation one of my specialists put together and I think I may have found an error but am not 100% sure because both your matrix and the DON commercial item matrix appear to have the same issue.

    Your matrix states that 252.216-7006 is not authorized for Commercial Items (CI), but DFARS  216.506(a) states to use this clause in solicitations and contracts lieu of FAR 52.216-18. According to FAR 12.301(e)(1), the clauses prescribed in 16.506 (of which 52.216-18 is one) are authorized for CI ID/IQ contracts. So based on the prescription in DFARS 216.506(a) to use 252.216-7006 in lieu of 52.216-18, wouldn't 252.216-7006 be authorized for use in CIs? 

  2. Don,

    under your performance format, how would you account for the different learning styles for different material. Take a class like 170 or 270, very math intensive. Would a student that chose the web based instruction for material like contract law or acquisition planning be able to switch to classroom for a math based class? Or would they be locked into web based instruction for the entire certification?

    Under this format how would you tie performance and successful or unsuccessful outcomes to the employee and the instructor? Would you recommend termination of an employee that cannot pass the classes? Also, given the current shortage of instruction in the classroom setting as demonstrated by reduced class offerings and long waitlists, how would your new format allow for scheduling issues or having to go outside of the DAU curriculum to obtain equivalency for some limited classes? 

  3. Don,

    I agree that web based traing is ineffective for most modules as I have observed many of my peers just click through the screens to just get through the material or worse, just print the modules into .pdfs and do controlled searches for the answers to pass the exams at the end. 

    I suppose my more basic question that I was trying to ask in my previous post is... Obviously something has changed from the way that most of my senior seasoned (15+ years of experience) 1102s learned contracting and my peers at the journeyman (5-15 years of experience and the  entry level folks (1-5 years). The seasoned folks I talk to often talk about how training was more individualized, that it was almost agency specific and although there was DAU or the AF service level training, when you got back to your agency you got the "tribal" position on the material you just learned. They (the seasoned folks) have said that the shift really occurred in the late 90s when the 1102 workforce was drastically cut, before those cuts, how was training handled and is it possible to go back to that format? I don't think learning at the college level has changed, although I do think that we have really struggle to teach the ability to think.

    Would you agree that the methods of training today's workforce are different than it was 15-20 years ago, and are these methods ineffective and should we attempt to return to older formats? Or has the issue of an largely poorly trained workforce always been there and you just had more knowledgable individuals that could carry the weight and mask the issue(s)?

    I can only speak anecdotally on the subject of the differences because I was trained in the current DAU format but based on the way that my more seasoned mentors talk about how they were brought up, I can see a difference between then and now.

    I imagine that if we could get to a format where training is specialized almost from the very beginning based on types of procurements (systems, operations, services) rather than what feels like the lowest common denominator, that would help. And then maybe have the 1102 choose the format and then have to be tested and certified at different levels for the types of procurements, similar to what you were describing, that could help. 

  4. Don,

    I like the idea of it, but how would you deal with that in today's workforce. I can only speak to my experience within DOD, but I doubt that it is different in the civilian world, given that some of my peers came from that world, I just have never worked in it so I can't speak to it directly. That being said... I find that each service, and often each MAJCOM within the service views things differently and therefore you can ask folks in each different group the same question and get different responses. A good example of this is what satisfies the requirement of the "determination" required by FAR 17.207(d). I've been at several agencies, and talked to and witnessed multiple KOs state that this determination means a D&F, as required by FAR 1.704, when pressed on the issue, as I learned early on in my career after reading one of Vern's posts on that very subject, the ultimate answer for why do you think that a formal D&F is required is... because that's how we do it here or that's what our policy office says. 

    IMO no amount of training, or no style of training will be able to overcome the agency thats how we do it... especially if the application at the local level is incorrect because someone that goes to training and learns all these great things comes back is either discouraged because they hear "I don't care how DAU taught you... this is how we do it" or they start first at their agency, and then go to training, and can tell that there are differences in what is being taught, and get cross threaded because they cannot distinguish between these differences. 

    I've always been curious... there seems to be quite a focus on the lack of training of today's workforce what's changed from how you learned contracting, and what would it take to go back to that model? 

  5. IMO it would be easier, but I can ask folks around my agency of about 80 people ranging from brand new 1102s to folks that have 25-30 years of experience and give you some boots on the ground feedback. 

    I appreciate you taking the time to put this together, I use the rewrite of 52.212-1 tailored to SAP buys that you and Vern put together whenever I have to do sap orders so thank you for that as well. 

×
×
  • Create New...