UMBC Training Centers wins contract from National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

The fast-growing UMBC Training Centers LLC, a unit of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, has been awarded a contract that could be worth nearly $3.7 million by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to offer courses to the NGA’s mid-level GEOINT analysts and other agency employees.

The courses would be delivered as part of the NGA’s “Academic Outreach” program, which aims to develop academic partnerships with accredited regional and national colleges and universities, according to the NGA’s award announcement published on December 30.

UMBC Training Centers LLC, which is headquartered in Columbia, MD, will be expected to offer NGA students a wide range of courses, including critical thinking, spatial thinking and methodologies, cartographic presentation and visualization, international relations theory, human geography, regional studies of North Africa, Middle East or Asia Pacific, and a “capstone course” on advanced geospatial intelligence analysis.

In its solicitation, NGA indicated that it planned to award a contract with a one-year base period, plus four one-year option periods. If all options were exercised, the award to UMBC Training Centers could generate revenues of $3,667,373, says the agency’s notice.

“UMBC Training Centers is the premier provider of technical, engineering and professional skills training in the Mid-Atlantic region for individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies,” says the Web site of UMBC Training Centers, which was founded in 2000. “Our exclusive Rapid Applied Learning (RAL) unites highly interactive, participatory learning and exceptional content with UMBC’s instructional excellence.”

University of Maryland Baltimore County’s rapid growth (from 2010 to 2013, UMBC was ranked as the #1 Up-and-Coming National University by U.S. News and World Report) has caught the attention of the national media.

Here is a segment by 60 Minutes about UMBC’s charismatic president, Freeman Hrabowski III.