SDSU CES is, essentially, a learning environment for those who have already completed their traditional undergraduate (or graduate) studies. Among the CES offerings are more than 50 Certificate Programs—including the Professional Certificate in Contract Management. You take six “core” courses and four elective courses, and you get the Certificate. Each course takes one night a week for six weeks. The Contract Management Certificate program is offered in cooperation with the San Diego Chapter of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA).
I’ve been offered the opportunity to instruct one of the Contract Management Certificate classes: Financial Management of Government Contracts. I jumped at the chance, because it sounded fun and (frankly) easy. It’s what I’ve been doing for the past 35 years. In addition, I get paid!
But putting together 17 hours of classroom instruction is not particularly easy, no matter how well one knows the subject matter. It’s not only the PowerPoint slides, of which there are more than 230. It can’t be just about PowerPoint slides, because who wants 17 hours of PowerPoint? There are also discussion questions, and exercises. There are legal decisions to download. There are DCAA audit programs to provide, and DCMA Instructions to provide. In short, I’ve spent about 50 hours preparing for the 17 hours of classroom instruction. And I haven’t even written the Final Exam yet.
So if the blog articles haven’t been as frequent recently, please understand. My attention has been elsewhere.
Here’s my course outline:
Week 1: Financial Risks Throughout the Contract Lifecycle
Week 2: Understanding Contract Costs
Week 3: Contract Cost Principles and The Cost Accounting Standards
Week 4: Business Systems and Adequacy Criteria
Week 5: Indirect Rates, Payments, Audits, and Disputes
Week 6: Other Compliance Risks
If the outline above sounds interesting, consider taking the class! It starts in a month.
If you live outside of the San Diego area, consider hiring Apogee Consulting, Inc. (that’s me!) to develop a similar course for your team, to be taught at your place of business. It will be inexpensive. Trust me on that one; most of the work has already been done!
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