Justification for Interim Contract Area Studies Course Instructors

Background
The Department of State's National Foreign Affairs Training Center (NFATC) requires an interim contract for Area Studies course instructors to prevent disruption to mission-essential operations. This contract is justified due to unusual and compelling urgency, ensuring continuity in training for foreign affairs personnel.

Work Details
The contractor will design, manage, and deliver comprehensive Area Studies courses covering thematic, regional, sub-regional, and country-specific topics. Responsibilities include:
- Complete lifecycle management of course delivery from curriculum engineering to classroom facilitation.
- Organizing and delivering courses based on specialized regional expertise.
- Generating course designs, facilitator guides, schedules, and syllabi.
- Compiling pre-reading materials and managing bibliographies.
- Counseling foreign affairs professionals and facilitating live sessions.
- Delivering presentations and introducing guest experts.
- Driving class discussions and assessing student participation.
- Administering evaluations per NFATC policy and collaborating with staff for performance improvements.
- Providing administrative support including managing guest speaker presentations, classroom resources, attendance rosters, evaluations, and financial tracking.
- Managing the administrative processes for guest speakers within the Diplomatic Tradecraft and Emerging Technology Directorate (DTET), including budgeting and honoraria.

Period of Performance
The contract will be performed during a transitional period aligned with a lull in the training calendar before the Fall 2027 instructional cycle begins.

Place of Performance
Arlington VA UNITED STATES

Bidder Requirements
The contractor must possess specialized institutional knowledge of NFATC’s Area Studies curriculum and workflows. They must also have established frameworks for managing complex honorarium payments and coordinating guest speakers across various sectors. Experience with language-integrated course cohorts is essential to avoid disruptions in training.

Incumbent Analysis (see Incumbents section for more detail)
The prior BPA call orders 19FS1A20A0001-19FS1A25F7030 (Mccolm & Company, $1,660,321) and 19FS1A20A0002-19FS1A25F7029 (Simon Everett, $431,600) indicate a confirmed incumbent presence supporting NFATC Area Studies course instruction during the same general timeframe. The current interim requirement for course instructor services—covering curriculum/facilitator guide development, delivery of regional and country-specific area studies, and associated classroom administration and evaluations—appears to align with the type of instructor support needed to prevent disruption to mission-essential training continuity.