Top 5 Data Science certifications to know about in 2021
Vishwajeet Singh Rana
Senior Software Engineer (AI, Computer Vision and Video Analytics) at Collins Aerospace, Raytheon Technologies
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.
Why take up online certifications?
Having said that, let’s take a look at the top 9 online certifications that you can complete for Data Science this year!
1. IBM Data Science Professional Certification
Duration — 3 months (flexible)
Level — Beginner
Platform — Coursera
You get: Certificates and digital badge
Image Source: Coursera
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!
Courses
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
2. Tableau Data Scientist | Desktop Specialist
Duration — 3 months (flexible)
Level — Beginner
Platform — Tableau e-learning
Cost — FREE
You get: Digital role badge
Image Source: Tableau Official Website
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
Tableau Desktop Specialist
Image Source: Tableau Official Website
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
领英推荐
Passing score: 70%
Skills measured
3. HarvardX’s Data Science Professional Certificate
Duration — 1 year 5 months (flexible)
Level — Beginner
Platform — edX
Cost = $441
Image Source: edX
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 —
Courses
Access the certification:?Link
4. Business Analytics Specialization
Platform — Coursera
Level — Beginner
Duration — 6 months (3 hr/week)
Image Source: Coursera
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.
Courses
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
5. Advanced Business Analytics Specialization
Platform — Coursera
Level — Intermediate
Duration — 5 months (3 hr/week)
Image Source: Coursera
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.
Courses
Access the certification:?Link