Now a days, many organizations are considering to hire Data Science professionals who have completed a Data Science certification course.

One of the familiar questions we get to read on platforms such as Quora is “What are the best certification courses for Data Science?” Today, many aspiring students who want to make an entry into the Data Science field look into various resources to find an answer to such questions that they have in their mind.

If you are also looking to become a master in Data Science, increase your productivity, and wish to be noted as the best performer at your organization, then you also need to take up certain certification courses pertaining to Data Science that can help you to accomplish your goals that you have set for your career.

What are IT certifications? What value do they add to your profile to take your career to new heights?

An IT certification is a readily recognized benchmark mapped to a certain skill set based on standardized testing. Being a certified employee in a particular domain will showcase your dedication, interest, motivation and technical knowledge you gained over a period of time.

These certificates show your willingness to work in a particular field of technology and will allow you to join a group of like-minded people who are on the same path as yours and have similar kinds of career goals.

“Get Certified; a certificate easily moves you at least thousand rows ahead of other job candidates, with similar knowledge.”

Many organizations encourage their employees to take up several certification training courses and get certified, as it will help them to have a more technically advanced workforce in their team to provide better solutions to newly arising challenges.

As per the report provided by CompTIA, around 72% of employers consider IT certification as a requirement for certain jobs. The report further says that around 90% of the employers agree that IT-certified staff are more likely to get promotions and about 89% of the employers think IT-certified staff performs better in the same roles than non-certified staff.

Another report from Global Knowledge 2019 IT Skills and Salary Report suggests that nearly 85% of IT professionals hold at least one certificate, with 66% already planning to take the next certificate.

All these statistics show the importance of IT certificates  in the present IT industry. Today most of the fields of this sector such as Data Science, Web Development and Networking have learnt the importance of these certificates, and they value them a lot.

7 Benefits of taking up a Data Science certification course

Earning an IT certification  takes time and money. People will want to know what benefits they will get in return if they become a certified employee. So, to help them to get the answer,  we have provided here a list of all the benefits of taking up a Data Science certification:

1) Showcase your skills set and knowledge:

Data Science certifications provide you a way to prove your skills set and knowledge to potential employers. Earning these certificates is not an easy task and often includes many performance-based questions that test your skills set required to perform a specific task. Having cleared such tough exams will mark you as an employee with enormous potential in your organization.

2) Remain competitive and increase your chance of getting hired:

Being a certified candidate adds extra credibility to your profile and it differentiates you from other competitors during the interview process. Having certification is a significant advantage compared to those who do not have.

3) Update your knowledge

Preparing for certification exams is one of the ways to enhance your skills set and knowledge with regard to a specific technology. This involves a process that includes taking classes, reading study guides, and attending mock tests. Completing online training modules can help you to learn new concepts and  update yourself with all the latest skills. When you have all the necessary skills set, then you can take the certification exam to validate your skills set and knowledge.

4) Get promotions in your job

If you are willing to get promoted to a higher-paying job in your company and are looking for a more responsible job that gets everyone’s attention, then pursuing a certification course is an ideal way to achieve your goal. Master certain skills set and take up certification exam and be a certified employee. And then, present it to your higher manager to prove that you deserve a much higher level job than your current job and get promotions.

5) Build a network

Once you pursue a certificate in any particular technology, it allows you to join a group of like-minded professionals. This provides a platform for you to get connected with such professionals who know similar skills and technologies and might have similar kind of work experience as yours. This will allow you to exchange your knowledge and ideas with them while seeking an answer or providing solutions to the technical problems that arise in your field.

Interacting with such group members can prove to be very beneficial to you as sometimes you get to know about the latest happenings in your tech arena and what new skills you need to learn further. It also helps you get to know which certification you need to pursue next to keep yourself updated always.

6) Job retention

In volatile economic environment, sometimes businesses look to cut costs by offboarding few employees. In such situation having an IT certification can prove to be advantageous to you. Being a certified employee shows that you are determined to enhance your skills set and continue to be a valuable employee for your organization.

7) Receive a higher salary

Certificates not only prove that you are an employee with potential, but also help you to get a higher salary. As per the research conducted by Global Knowledge 2019 IT Skills and Salary Report, worldwide, certified professionals earn nearly $5,439 more than non-certified staff, which is up to 9% increase.

Various certification courses for Data Science professionals

Data Science professionals are in huge demand. Now, most of the organizations are willing to hire certified professionals in their team who  know certain skills set and have knowledge, and are able to contribute to the growth of their organization.

The following is the list of some certification courses provided by well-known organizations that you can consider pursuing. These certificate courses serve many purposes. Some of the programs may test fundamental and theoretical principles of Data Science, while others may test your Data Science skills set through a hands-on approach by providing you some real Data Science challenges.

List of the Data Science certifications offered by various institutes

1) Cloudera Certified Associate: Data Analyst

Candidates taking CCA Data Analysts certificate can be SQL developers, Data Analysts, system architects, database administrators and so on.

2) SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Professional

This SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Professional Certificate exam consists of 3 exams that you will have to pass to earn the designation. Candidates need to have experience in some areas such as Machine Learning and predictive modeling technique, pattern detection, experimentation in business, optimization techniques and many more.

3) SAS Certified Big Data Professional

This SAS Certified Big Data Professional certification includes two modules with a total of 9 courses. You need to pass two exams to earn the designation. Some of the topics covered in this certificate program are critical SAS programming skills, fundamentals of statistics and analytics, improving data quality for reporting and analytics and essential communication skills and many more.

You need at least 6 months of programming experience in SAS or in another programming language to enroll for this program.

4) Dell Technologies Data Scientist Associate (DCA-DS)

The Dell Technologies Data Scientist associate (DCA-DS) certificate is an entry-level Data Science designation which is designed for a new entry into  Data Science and for those who are willing to make a career work as Data Scientist. This certification program provides practical foundation level training that helps immediate and effective participation in Big Data and other analytics projects.

5) Dell Technologies Data Scientist Advanced Analytics Specialist (DCS-DS)

The Dell Technologies Data Scientist Advanced Analytics Specialist (DCS-DS) certificate builds on the entry-level associate certificate and helps the aspiring Data Scientists continue to evolve and expands their skills set. This certificate program covers some of the important topics that include advanced analytical methods, social network analysis, Natural Language Processing, and Visualization methods.            

Some of the Data Science certificates offered by Universities

As per the list provided by Data Science Degree Program Guide, these are some of the well-known certification programs provided by various universities:

1) Purdue University – West Lafayette, Indiana

This university provides Certificate in Applied Statistics. The Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics is a 12 credit hour certificate in applied statistics through the Department of Statistics. This certificate helps the students to increase their skills in statistics and statistical thinking ability.

2) University of Pennsylvania – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

This university provides Certificate in Data Analytics. This is four course sequence for students who are willing to gain expertise in Data Science.

3) University of Maryland – College Park, Maryland

This university provides Graduate Certificate of Professional Studies in Data Science through the department of Computer Science. This certificate course provides a broad introduction to this existing field. Some of the courses covered include Machine Learning, statistics, databases, and visualization.

Apart from the above list, there are numerous certificates available that are provided by various industries. You can check the list here.

How to select the right Data Science certificate for your career growth

Data Science field is exciting, and growing continuously and offering many opportunities for young aspiring IT professionals who are passionate about technology. You might need to undergo certain certification programs and earn certificates in order to develop your Data Science skills and become a successful Data Science professional.

To help these emerging professionals, many institutes and universities are offering certificate programs in Data Science technology. As the number of these certification programs is vast, choosing the right certification for your career growth becomes an incredibly important task.

Here are 5 factors you need to consider while choosing the certification program:

1) Pick your career path (Change the tense in the pictorial above, too)

Picking the right career path is very important while making any decision about taking any Data Science certificate. As we know, Data Science is a vast field and it includes a varied set of experts such as Data Scientists, Data Analysts, Data Engineer, and Data Architects, etc. So, before beginning to take up these certificates, you need to know which among the many Data Science streams you want to work, in and choose the certificate accordingly.

2) Know your goal

It is very important to know why exactly you need to take these certificate programs. Is it to advance in your career? Or, are you just interested in learning a new skill set?

If you are looking for a course that helps you to establish yourself as an expert in Data Science, then consider taking such certificate programs that cover all the latest updates about the Data Science field.

If you are a complete beginner to this field, then initially choose foundation level certification and then go ahead taking up higher level certification exams.

3) Make some research

It is very important to make some research about different certificates available for Data Science professionals. You need to speak with colleagues, read IT blogs, and participate in discussion forums to get to know better about the certificate programs.

Before signing up for any certificate programs, you need to know some factors such as what are the prerequisites skills you should have to take up this certificate program? What is the duration of the course? When will the exams be conducted? How much does the exam cost? Is-it industry recognized?

Institutions and universities have set their own standards for conducting their certificate programs. It is good to make a comparison between different certificate programs. This will help you to know the distinctions and variations between them and allow to choose the certificates that perfectly suit you.

4) Talk to employers

No one guides you better than employers while making decisions on which certificate you need to pursue. You need to contact different organizations and look into their websites and read their blogs to know which kind of certified employers they are looking to hire. Some organizations provide some useful information about which specific skills set they are looking for in the candidates and what kind of certification they expect from the job applicants. This helps you to judge which certificate program you will need to get you a job.

5) Know the IT market demands

Every day, new technologies keep emerging and existing ones get updated. So, to remain successful in your career you need to keep listening to changes that happen in the Data Science field and quickly update yourself with the latest findings. Always pay attention to market trends and know what new technologies are emerging. This will help you to know which is the next certificate you need to take up to keep growing in your career.

Know the different steps involved in taking up certificates

Having known how to choose the right certificate for your career growth now let us look into some of the steps you need to follow while taking certificates.

1) Choose which certificate you need to pursue

Initially, you need to choose which certificate is best suited for you. Make your research correctly and decide which certificate will help you to boost to career to new heights.

2) Get to know in detail about the certificate

Once you decided upon which certificate you want to take, get to know some important factors to take up that certification exam. Here, you need to know some factors such as what are prerequisite skills you require to take up the certificate exam, what is the duration of the exam, how much it costs, when this exam will be conducted, etc.

3) Start preparing for the exam

Once you get to know all the necessary information regarding the exam, start preparing for it. Take the help of some of the resources such as online course for Data Science, PDF files, e-books, etc. and prepare well for the exams. Some certificate programs provide practice tests that help you to know the exam patterns. Take the help of such options.

4) Register and take your certification exam and receive your certificate

Once you have done up with your preparation then register with the particular certification exam you need to take. Know the exam schedule and get ready with everything that is required for taking up the certification exam.

Once you pass the exam and meet all program requirements, you will be eligible to receive your certificate. Follow all the steps that are suggested by certificate providers to collect your certificate. This helps you receive your certificate.

Conclusion:

Data Science field is updating continuously and asking the Data Science professionals to learn new technologies and update their knowledge. Looking at this growth, many institutes and universities are offering various Data Science certification programs and providing them a learning path to update skills set.

Some of the organizations working in this field are now considering to hire Data Science professionals who have completed Data Science certificate programs from any of the recognized institutes and universities.

So, this guide provides some valuable information about these different Data certification programs offered by some of the leading certification providers. Along with all these information we would like to share a link of some wonderful online courses on Data Science that can prove to be valuable to you.

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