Government Contracting

Graduate Certificate
12 Credit Hours

This program is offered by the George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology. It is available online (part asynchronous and part synchronous) and at select U.S. campuses. Please see the Campus Locations and Offerings section of this catalog for a list of campuses where this program is offered.

For information on the general requirements for a certificate, see Certificate Program Policies and Procedures under the Academic Policies section of this catalog.

Program Description

Webster University, in a strategic partnership with the Defense Acquisition University (DAU), provides classes for Department of Defense (DoD) workers in the Acquisitions, Technology and Logistics workforce. For important information regarding the certificate in government contracting program equivalencies with DAU CON courses, visit the Webster/DAU Partnership website.

For additional details, please contact the Office of Admission. Email: admissions@webster.edu

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the required courses students will be able to:

• Demonstrate business acumen in determining how to best satisfy stated mission requirements by providing proactive business advice with government contracting requirements. 
• Demonstrate proficiency with written and oral communication skills through clear and convincing presentations, effective listening, and writing in a clear, concise, organized, and effective contracts.
• Demonstrate problem solving abilities by identifying and analyzing problems; weighing relevance and accuracy of information; generating and evaluating alternative solutions; and making suitable recommendations.
• Demonstrate critical thinking skills by providing analyses to advise on procurement matters including contract documentation, legislative issues, and congressional inquiries impacting contracting matters.
• Construct effective contracts and demonstrate accountability with measurable high-quality, timely, and cost-effective results and develop contracts that sets priorities, and complies with established control systems and rules.

Requirements

Webster University, in a strategic partnership with the Defense Acquisition University (DAU), provides classes for acquisition workforce personnel. Students are offered specialized courses in contracting, acquisitions management, pricing, negotiations, and procurement law. These government contracting certificate courses are equivalent to certain the new Contracting Professional Certification Defense Acquisition University (DAU) courses and can be used to meet the training certification requirements of the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA). 

The graduate certificate in government contracting is designed for current contracting specialists and those desiring to enter the profession.  The program emphasizes both theory and practice allowing students to learn contracting principles and use of the current tools in the profession. 

Changes to the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C) programs have resulted in a modernization initiative revising the approach to certifying contracting professionals. The new training and certification model (FAC-C Professional) is based on ANSI-accredited contracting competencies and promotes consistency and facilitates mobility between industry, DoD, civilian agencies, and state and local governments.

This revised approach reflects a new model of lifelong learning that reimagines how the Federal Government develops the acquisition workforce. The new program is designed to attract more people into the contracting workforce from a variety of sources – colleges, industry, internal candidates from other functions, and state and local governments.

Moving from the previous 3-level certification, with a heavy emphasis on many broad initial training requirements, to a single-level professional certification focused on foundational training, streamlines early career learning, and provides for more effective continual lifelong learning. Once the foundational training is completed and the individual is assigned to a GS-1102 position, the remaining requirements to become certified as a FAC-C Professional are to obtain 12 months of experience and to pass the Contracting Professional Certification Exam (note that this exam is only made available to current federal acquisition workforce personnel.) 

The new single-level FAC-C Professional focuses on the basics for the first year with the goal of achieving foundational knowledge, and requires the completion of four courses that comprise the core training curriculum:

Admission

See the Admission section of this catalog for general admission requirements. Students interested in applying must submit their application online at www.webster.edu/apply. Transcripts should be sent from your institution electronically to transcripts@webster.edu. If this service is not available, send transcripts to:

Office of Admission
Webster University
470 E. Lockwood Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63119