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Top 9 Data Science certifications to know about in 2020
Some of the best data science certification programs worth considering
The growing popularity of MOOCs is an undeniable fact. There is evidence of a growing number of corporates using MOOCs for workforce training development. To my belief (and the recruiters I’ve met), online certifications are an evidence of your abilities beyond textbook knowledge on a standard reference platform.
Learners take advantage of MOOCs out of personal interest or enhancing their job prospects and skill set. The primary goal, however, remains to gain credibility or relevance with skills in current times.
“How are courses and certificates viewed by potential employers?”
In my share of discussing this with the recruiters, I’ve had a chance to, the bottom line is: certifications put you on a common ground where your performance and skills laud for you. Certifications exhibit the extra mile you went for honing your skills.
Having said that, let’s take a look at the top 9 online certifications that you can complete for Data Science this year!
Duration — 3 months (flexible)
Level — Beginner
Platform — Coursera
You get: Certificates and digital badge
Having completed this certification, I can assure y’all that this one is the best beginner-level data science certification program for enthusiasts looking to kickstart their professional data science career.
From explaining what data science is and why is it so popular to making the learners do a capstone with APIs integration — I highly recommend taking up this 9-course challenge!
The certification requires no pre-requisites. However, if you wish a better grasp of learning, I’d suggest completing a crash course on Python beforehand. By course 6, you will start building projects from scratch, making this a perfect way to get some fancy projects on your resumes!
Access the certification: Link
Duration — 3 months (flexible)
Level — Beginner
Platform — Tableau e-learning
Cost — FREE
You get: Digital role badge
Tableau is offering discounts on many of its certifications but this one — Data Scientist Learning Path is for FREE. A sister certification is Tableau Data Analyst.
The Tableau Data Scientist path includes —
Tableau offers three major paid certifications —
Access the certification: Link
This exam is for those who have basic, foundational skills and understanding of Tableau Desktop and at least three months of applying an understanding, and experience with Tableau.
Fee =$50 through June 30, 2020 ($100 after June 30)
Time Limit: 60 minutes
Question Format: Multiple choice, multiple response
Number of Questions: 30
Passing score: 70%
Duration — 1 year 5 months (flexible)
Level — Beginner
Platform — edX
Cost = $441
Harvard University partnered with edX has a Data Science Certification that covers fundamental R programming skills, statistical concepts such as probability, inference, and modeling, experience with packages as tidyverse, ggplot2, and dplyr.
The best part about this certification is the course touching base on essential tools for practicing data scientists such as Unix/Linux, Git and GitHub, and RStudio
Another crest for this certification is its realism — the courses introduce the learners to motivating real-world case studies in the likes of —
Access the certification: Link
Platform — Coursera
Level — Beginner
Duration — 6 months (3 hr/week)
The Business Analytics Specialization is hosted on Coursera developed with Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. It provides a good foundational introduction to big data analytics across business professions such as marketing, human resources, operations and finance. The courses require NO prior analytics experience.
A stats on the website says 46% of learners started a new career after completing this specialization and 21% of learners got a pay increase or promotion.
Having audited the course and completing it, I can say it surely develops a sense of how we as data analysts should and can describe, predict, and inform business decisions in specific business areas. I am sure, after completing the specialization, any learner will develop an analytic mindset to help make better strategic decisions based on data, than having done before.
The capstone requires learners to combine knowledge from the four courses and encourages to make data-driven decisions for real business challenges faced by global technology giants as Google, Facebook and Yahoo.
Access the certification: Link
Platform — Coursera
Level — Intermediate
Duration — 5 months (3 hr/week)
The Advanced Business Analytics Specialization is hosted on Coursera developed with the University of Colorado, Boulder. The specialization merges the thin line between academia and business-world to combine learnings from experienced practitioners from both domains to share real-world data analytics skills to the learners.
A stats on the website says 50% of learners started a new career after completing this specialization! That’s something we are talking about!
Again, after completing this specialization, I am affirmed that I can now better draft and recognize the maximum value for shareholders. The course walked me through a thorough experience in data extraction and manipulation using SQL and to leverage statistical techniques for descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics for different business domains. More importantly, the course effectively teaches how to interpret and present analytic results for an efficient decision making.
Access the certification: Link
Duration — 170 minutes to complete the exam
Level — Advanced
Platform — AWS
Cost — $300
Type — Multiple choice, multiple answer
One of the other tough certifications, AWS Big Data Certification requires test takers to hold either of these certifications
The test requires a minimum of five years of hands-on experience in a data analytics field (not an easy challenge for college grads!)
Access the Certification: Link
Duration — Few months to several years
Cost — $250
Level — Advanced
Platform — SAS Academy for Data Science
The SAS Academy for Data Science is one of the prestigious platforms to learn SAS for Data Science. It offers courses in data curation, advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning to advance your career in data. Mind you, SAS itself is a tricky horizon to explore for beginners. If you are ready to take up one of the below examinations, make sure you are in complete knowledge of the prerequisites.
There are three basic pathways in SAS Academy
SAS Academy focuses on concepts of —
Access the certifications: Link
Duration — 180 minutes exam
Level — Advanced
Platform — Microsoft
Price —$165
Total Questions — 45 to 55
Type — Single and multi-choice questions
With Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE), you can demonstrate broad skillsets in database administration, SQL, building enterprise-scale data solutions, and leveraging business intelligence data.
Access the certification: Link
Duration — 180 minutes exam
Level — Advanced
Platform — Microsoft
Price — $165
Total Questions — 51
Type — Single and multi-choice questions (~50% questions from ML studio, 40% from ML service & 10% generic data science questions.)
By far the most tenuous certification I’ve come across and therefore the last on my list, the Microsoft Azure Data Scientist Certification is aimed for learners who wants to apply their data science and machine learning knowledge to implement and run machine learning models on Azure.
The good part about this certification is that you complete the examination with deploying a model as a service. What better than a product-ready project!?
The path is simple: Take one exam and earn the certificate
Access the certification: Link
That’s it from my end for this blog. Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the article. Do let me know what certification are you looking forward to learning or exploring in your Data Science journey this summer?
Happy Data Tenting!
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are my own and do not represent a strict outlook.
Rashi is a graduate student at the University of Illinois, Chicago. She loves to visualize data and create insightful stories. When not rushing to meet school deadlines, she adores writing about technology, UX, and more with a good cup of hot chocolate.
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