A qualitative needs assessment of personal services contracting education issues and opportunities and the application of findings to the design and development of a personal services contracting web-based continuous learning module: Educating the departm

Currently personal services contracts throughout the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) are all too frequently unauthorized and mismanaged. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) authored several reports regarding personal services contracts in recent years. Virtually all these reports identify problems including unauthorized, borderline, and unreported personal services contracts. These problems may be affecting over 100,000 contracts, with a significant number of health care contracts. Most of the literature reveals lack of understanding as a root cause to the problem. Despite GAO requests that the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) implement personal services contract education this has not happened.;This study focused on personal services contracts, their place in the DoD, personal services contract education, and curriculum development. The qualitative study compared and contrasted themes identified in the literature review. This unveiled what personal services contracts are and how they are being used in industries, including health care.;The study sought to understand how personal services contracts are utilized within the DoD and then focused on personal services contracting education within DoD. This led to the development of a web-based personal services contracting continuous learning module. The study utilized DAU methodologies to develop a web-based continuous learning module. Development of the module included an alpha review utilizing subject matter experts (SME) for review of content and design. The SME's input was incorporated to improve the module prototype. A beta review followed to acquire acceptability feedback from stakeholders within DoD's acquisition workforce.;The results of the beta review found an overall positive response to the continuous learning module. The educational value of the module was deemed positive. The beta review affirmed the module was viable for the education of DoD's acquisition workforce.;Based on the findings of this study, it is highly recommended that DAU implement this web-based personal services continuous learning module as a step toward alleviating issues associated with personal services contracts. GAO agrees that implementing personal services contracting education at DAU is much needed.;The study faced three main limitations. First, restrictions placed on the utilization of organizational resources required alternative methods that did not impact development, but will impact deployment of module. Second, SME input during the alpha review might have been more comprehensive had broader access to SMEs been permitted. Third, with organizational approval additional stakeholders could have been queried.;Once the course is fielded, opportunities for additional modification and feedback will be available. If the true measure of unauthorized, borderline, mismanaged, and underreported personal services contracts was known, the impact the course has on these contracts could be measured. GAO could revisit the issues concerning personal services contracting following a period of time after the course in implemented.