Integrating automated valuation models (AVMs) with valuation services to meet the needs of UK borrowers, lenders and valuers

Lenders traditionally instruct a valuer to conduct a property valuation to support property secured loan decisions. However AVM use for UK residential loan valuations has recently grown rapidly (CML, 2007) raising questions about how the UK valuers’ professional body, the RICS, should respond. The paper reports research funded by the RICS Education Trust and Residential Professional Group, commencing with interviews and a survey examining valuers’ changing roles in residential loan valuation in the UK, including the use of AVMs. Subsequent interviews with lenders and AVM companies explored choices between different valuation and survey levels, including AVMs, and development of AVM tools designed to support valuers. The paper analyses possible approaches to advice, guidance and regulation of AVM use by the UK professional body, drawing on the survey, interviews and a review of other countries’ professional body responses to AVMs. It is the first systematic study of valuers’ current and likely future involvement with automated valuation and their perceptions of it

Rule-based detection of access to education and training in Germany

As a result of transformation processes, the German labor market is highly dependent on vocational training, retraining and continuing education. To match training seekers and offers, we present a novel approach towards the automated detection of access to education and training in German training offers and advertisements. We will in particular focus on (a) general school and education degrees and schoolleaving certificates, (b) professional experience, (c) a previous apprenticeship and (d) a list of skills provided by the German Federal Employment Agency. This novel approach combines several methods: First, we provide a mapping of synonyms in education combining different qualifications and adding deprecated terms. Second, we provide a rule-based matching to identify the need for professional experience or apprenticeship. However, not all access requirements can be matched due to incompatible data schemata or non-standardizes requirements, e.g initial tests or interviews. While we can identify several shortcomings, the presented approach offers promising results for two data sets: training and re-training advertisements

Training specialists in conditions of modernization of production

Промышленное производство проходит этап модернизации, состоящий в создании нового оборудования, технологий и внедрении автоматизированных систем. Разрабатываются новые профессиональные стандарты для специалистов. В этих условиях необходимо повысить качество образования и обеспечить его непрерывностьIndustrial production is the stage of modernization, consisting in creation of new equipment, technologies and introduction of automated systems. Developed new professional standards for ex-perts. In these circumstances, it is necessary to improve the quality of education and ensure its continuit

Employment Data for Buffalo

The types of jobs available in Buffalo have changed post-recession, with midlevel skilled jobs disappearing and high and low skill jobs growing. The loss of jobs in fields such as teaching, office administration, factory work and construction work during the recession is exacerbated by the fact that many midlevel jobs, such as manufacturing, are being automated or sent to cheaper markets. Growth has occurred on the high and low skill ends of the spectrum, however, with increases in fields that require high-level business skill, healthcare expertise, computer training, engineering, etc. At the low end, there has been growth in food preparation, personal care, and jobs such as store clerks and child care providers. These changes are reflected in the fact that 31.2% of employed persons in Buffalo work in management, professional, and related occupations, and 20.8% work in service occupations, as of 2012. The data suggests the need for workers in Buffalo to acquire more education, training, and skills to ameliorate growing inequality and polarization in the job market, and for expansion of policies like living wages to ensure that the high number of low-skill jobs does not result in higher poverty

E-Simulations for educating the professions in blended learning environments

This chapter introduces digital, role-based simulations as an emerging and powerful educational approach for the professions and for broader workforce development purposes. It is acknowledged that simulations used for education, professional development, and training, have a long history of development and use. The focus is on digital simulations (e-simulations) situated in blended learning environments and the improved affordances of the newer digital media used via the web to enhance the value of their contribution to learning and teaching in professional and vocationally-oriented fields. This is an area which has received less attention in the whole “e-learning” literature compared with the voluminous body of knowledge and practice on computer-mediated communication, online community building, social networking, and various forms of online (usually automated) assessment. A framework of blended e-simulation design is outlined. The chapter concludes by examining what the future might hold for simulations in further and higher education, and ongoing work-based learning

A Roadmap to Gamify Programming Education

Learning programming relies on practicing it which is often hampered by the barrier of difficulty. The combined use of automated assessment, which provides fast feedback to the students experimenting with their code, and gamification, which provides additional motivation for the students to intensify their learning effort, can help pass the barrier of difficulty in learning programming. In such environment, students keep receiving the relevant feedback no matter how many times they try (thanks to automated assessment), and their engagement is retained (thanks to gamification). While there is a number of open software and programming exercise collections supporting automated assessment, up to this date, there are no available open collections of gamified programming exercises, no open interactive programming learning environment that would support such exercises, and even no open standard for the representation of such exercises so that they could be developed in different educational institutions and shared among them. This gap is addressed by Framework for Gamified Programming Education (FGPE), an international project whose primary objective is to provide necessary prerequisites for the application of gamification to programming education, including a dedicated gamification scheme, a gamified exercise format and exercises conforming to it, software for editing the exercises and an interactive learning environment capable of presenting them to students. This paper presents the FGPE project, its architecture and main components, as well as the results achieved so far. 2012 ACM Subject Classification Social and professional topics ! Computer science education

Hands-On TAROT: Intercontinental use of the TAROT for Education and Public Outreach

The TAROT telescope has for primary goal the search for the prompt optical counterpart of Cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts. It is a completely autonomous 25cm telescope installed near Nice (France), able to point any location of the sky within 1-2 seconds. The control, scheduling, and data processing activities are completely automated, so the instrument is completely autonomous. In addition to its un-manned modes, we added recently the possibility to remotely control the telescope, as a request of the "Hands-On Universe" (HOU) program for exchange of time within automatic telescopes for the education and public outreach. To this purpose we developed a simple control interface. A webcam was installed to visualize the telescope. Access to the data is possible through a web interface. The images can be processed by the HOU software, a program specially suited for use within the classroom. We experienced these feature during the open days of the University of California Berkeley and the Astronomy Festival of Fleurance (France). We plan a regular use for an astronomy course of the Museum of Tokyo, as well as for French schools. Not only does Hands-On TAROT gives the general public an access to professional astronomy, but it is also a more general tool to demonstrate the use of a complex automated system, the techniques of data processing and automation. Last but not least, through the use of telescopes located in many countries over the globe, a form of powerful and genuine cooperation between teachers and children from various countries is promoted, with a clear educational goal.Comment: 4 pages, Based on a demonstration presented at the ADASS X Conference, Boston, MA, USA, October 2000, to appear in ASP Conf. Serie

SYReLIB: enhancing the global connections of Syria's academic community.

This is a brief report on a pilot project funded by the European Commission TEMPUS programme concerned with the modernisation of the university libraries in Syria and the enhanced visibility of the research outputs of the Syrian academic community. As background, it outlines the current state of the country's electronic and scholarly publishing, and the development of national and university computer networks. It reviews the project's contribution to introduction of automated library management systems with online catalogues and institutional repositories, and the expansion of journal collections. The issues likely to impact on further developments are discussed. Aspects of current professional education, including a shortage of qualified librarians with contemporary professional knowledge and skills, inhibit development. Other major challenges are the lack of effective strategic planning and poor management systems

Get yourself connected: conceptualising the role of digital technologies in Norwegian career guidance

This report outlines the role of digital technologies in the provision of career guidance. It was commissioned by the c ommittee on career guidance which is advising the Norwegian Government following a review of the countries skills system by the OECD. In this report we argue that career guidance and online career guidance in particular can support the development of Norwa y’s skills system to help meet the economic challenges that it faces.The expert committee advising Norway’s Career Guidance Initiativ