Top Data Science Certifications for Boosting your Career

Data Scientists are high in demand. It is considered as the sexiest job of the IT industry. Companies are relying on Data Scientists to get the most out of the data collected by them. If you are also planning to enter into this career, then these Data Science Certifications will help you in proving your worth.

The various Data Science Certifications make you industry ready data professionals. They will help you to develop the skills which are required in the industry for solving real-time problems. The recruiters use these certificates for validating your skills and knowledge. Having some of these certificates will help you a lot in your journey of becoming a Data Scientist. In this tutorial, we will explore the top certification programs, what they offer, and some other details related to them.

Data Science Certifications

Data Science Certifications

With the increasing demand and job openings for Data Scientists, the competition is also increasing. The companies are looking for talented data professionals who will help them to make sense of their data. Many students who want to get hired as a Data Scientist have a common question,” What are the best Data Science Certification courses ?”. If you are one of them, then this tutorial will definitely work for you. Some of the best Data Science Certifications that will give you an extra edge over your competitors are:

1. Open Certified Data Scientist (Open CDS)

The Open Data Scientist Certification course validates the skills, knowledge, and experience as a Data Scientist. The interviewers use this certificate to verify that you have the essential skills and capabilities required for the effective analysis of data which can help in improving the business of any organization. There are three levels of this certification program.

  • After clearing the first level you will be a Certified Data Scientist.
  • After clearing the second level you will be a Master Certified Data Scientist.
  • Finally, after clearing the third level you will be a Distinguished Certified Data Scientist.

This certificate will help you to demonstrate your knowledge, expertise, and experience in the field of Data Science. For pursuing this certification course, firstly you need to collect 4-5 milestone badges, then you need to complete the experience application form and finally, you need to attend a board review.

2. Cloudera Certified Professional: CCP Data Engineer

CCP Data Engineer certification program aims at preparing data professionals who can build reliable, optimal and scalable solutions for Big Data problems. This certification will test you for the skills that a Data engineer must possess. The skills tested by this program are the ability to perform data analysis, workflow-oriented tasks, transform data from one form to another and much more. There are no specified prerequisites for this course, but you should have the basic skills and knowledge related to data engineering. The exam conducted has a limit of 4 hours and includes around 5-8 customer-centric problems. The passing score is 75%.

Cost: $400 per attempt, three exams per attempt
Expiration: Valid for 3 years

3. Cloudera Certified Associate: Data Analyst

The CCA exam tests your skills and knowledge as a Data Analyst, System Architect, Database administrator, and SQL Developer. The aim of the CCA Data Analyst exam is to make the talented SQL developers stand out so that they can be easily recognized by the recruiters. There are no prerequisites for this course. The exam includes 8-12 customer-centric problems with large datasets. The time limit for the exam is 120 minutes and the passing score is 70%.

Cost: $295 per exam and per attempt
Expiration: Valid for 2 years

4. Cloudera Certified Professional: Data Scientist

This certification program is considered as one of the top five certificates for Big Data and Data Analytics. This certificate helps employers in identifying highly skilled Data Scientists. The program will test you as a Statistician, Machine learning engineer, Data Analyst, and Developer. This certification enables you to test your skills in statistics and programming with large real-world datasets. For pursuing the CCP Data Scientist course, you must have the knowledge of popular Big Data technologies like Hadoop, Spark, Python, R, etc. You need to clear three exams to get the certificate.

Cost: $600 per exam
Expiration: Valid for 3 years

5. Microsoft Certified Azure Data Scientist Associate

The Microsoft Azure Data Scientist Associate certification program focuses on preparing skilled Data Scientists who can apply machine learning principles to develop and train such models which will help in solving business problems. The exam conducted for this certificate tests your ability to implement Machine learning, AI solutions, Natural Language Processing, Computer vision, and predictive analytics.

Cost: $165
Expiration: Credentials do not expire

6. Google Certified Professional Data Engineer

If you have the knowledge of Google’s Cloud Platform(GCP) and want to have a career in data engineering, then this program is best suited for you. It will help you to develop the necessary skills required for data engineering. It will make you learn how to collect and transform the data for making data-driven decisions with the help of presentations, demos, and labs. You will gain real-world experience through a number of Qlik lab projects included in the program. The exam conducted for the certificate checks the candidate’s ability to design data processing systems, operationalize Machine learning systems, and provide quality solutions.

Cost: $200
Expiration: Credentials do not expire

7. Dell EMC Data Science Track

This program consists of two certifications:

  • Data Science Associate
    This program provides you with basic knowledge of Data Science and Big Data Analytics and covers all related topics.
  • Data Science Specialist
    You can go for this program after the completion of the Associate-level program. This program includes advanced topics such as Natural language processing, Hadoop, Pig, methods of data visualization, etc.
    You can complete this course either in-person or online.

Cost: $230 per exam
Expiration: does not expire

8. Certified Analytics Professional (CAP)

Today the organizations are looking for Data Scientists who can get the meaning out of data and make some data-driven decisions. This certification program will help you to develop the abilities and skills required for transforming complex data and draw effective conclusions that can benefit the business. The program will help you to refine your analytical skills. The candidates are tested on their skills of analytical problem solving, method selection, model building, and deployment.

Cost: It costs $495 for INFORMS members and $695 for non-members. Team pricing is also available for organizations on request.
Expiration: Valid for 3 years.

9. SAS Academy for Data Science

There are three Data Science Certification programs offered by SAS Academy.

  • SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Professional
    This program teaches you the basics of machine learning, techniques of predictive modeling, how to find hidden patterns in data, data optimization, etc. This program consists of nine courses and you have to clear three exams for getting the certificate.
  • SAS Certified Big Data Professional
    The topics covered in this program are SAS programming, improving data quality, communication skills, basics of statistics, data visualization, popular Data Science tools like Hadoop, SAS, etc. This program also includes nine courses and you have to clear two exams for earning the certificate.
  • SAS Certified Data Scientist
    After completing the above two courses you are ready to go with this one. This program teaches you how to manage, improve, transform, and manipulate the data and how to use popular data visualization tools.

Cost: $180 per exam for the first program
$180 per exam for the second program
$4400 for the third program

Expiration: Credentials do not expire.

10. Google Data and Machine Learning

This certification program includes three individual tracks for Data Analysts, Data Engineers, and Data Scientists. You can select the track which suits your interests and role. The data analyst track teaches you how to extract insights by analyzing and visualizing the petabytes of data with the help of the Google Cloud Platform. The course focuses on audiences having a background of Data Analysts, Business Analysts, Business Intelligence professionals, and Cloud Data Engineers and consists of one three-day module. The data engineering track includes three modules that teach you the principles of Data Engineering, Big Data, and Machine learning with the Google Cloud Platform. One out of these three modules also prepares you for the professional data engineer exam. The Data Scientist track consists of three modules that focus on the fundamentals of Big Data, Machine learning, and Tensorflow.

Cost: $200
Expiration: Credentials do not expire.

11. Data Science Council of America (DASCA) Senior Data Scientist (SDS)

This certification program by DASCA is for data professionals working in the fields of analytics and research with an experience of more than 4 or 5 years. There are five tracks in this certification course. Each of these five tracks has its specific requirements regarding degree, experience, and prerequisites. The least criteria of eligibility are a bachelor’s degree and experience of more than 5 years for each track. Some of these tracks also require a master’s degree and certain certifications.

Cost: $650
Expiration: valid for five years

Summary

So finally, these were some of the Best Data Science certifications online which will help you develop the essential skills and knowledge for your bright career. You can go through these certification programs at any point in your career for refining and updating your skills.

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