What is The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate?
The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate is professional training program available on the online learning platform, Coursera. It comprises of 8 courses developed by Google that can be completed within three to six months. The online course, which is taught by Google experts, teaches the most in-demand skills needed to be an entry-level data analyst in the industry. It includes numerous hours of video lecture content, learning resources, an amazing community of students and practice quizzes.
In this post, I will answer all the questions you have about the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate.
Who Should Take The Google Data Analytics Certificate Course?
This course is suitable for anyone aspiring to become a data analyst. Regardless of being fresh out of college or transitioning from another field, it is a flexible, self-paced online learning experience that equips students on numerous topics across the data analytics field.
How Much Does The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate Cost?
Coursera gives a 7 day free trial at the beginning of the course and charges you the monthly subscription rate of USD39 once the trial ends. Additionally, there is a financial aid option for students who cannot afford the monthly fees.
What Is The Google Data Analytics Course Curriculum Like?
The specialization consists of eight courses, six of which comprise of the data analysis phases. ASK, PREPARE, PROCESS, ANALYZE, SHARE, ACT. Each course is highly interactive, with practice-based assessments and resources for guidance when needed. I will give a brief breakdown of each course below.
Course 1: Foundation: Data, Data, Everywhere
Firstly, this is the introductory part of the specialization. It focuses on introducing students to what a data analyst’s job entails, skills required to be a successful analyst, tools of data analysis, life cycle of data, data integrity, data fairness measures and so much more.
Course 2: Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions
The course teaches the importance of defining the business problem of the stakeholders. This is the first phase of data analysis process. Business objectives can be met by asking effective questions and making data-driven decisions. Additionally, it covers different problem types that data analysts encounter, types of data and some spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets) basics.
Course 3: Prepare Data for Exploration
This course covers the basics of data ethics, bias, privacy, rights, and ways of identifying good data sources. It also teaches different data types and structures and dives into the use of SQL and spreadsheets to collect, store and explore data. At this stage of analysis, the data analyst creates security measures to protect their data.
Course 4: Process Data From Dirty To Clean
Here, you’re taught the importance of data integrity, i.e. the accuracy, completeness and consistency of data throughout its life cycle. Moreover, it covers data cleaning and transformation with SQL. You learn how to remove multiple entries and check for bias in your data.
Course 5: Analyze Data to Answer Questions
In this course, the instructors teach how to make sense of all the data collected. Also, you will learn use of SQL and spreadsheets to aggregate data, use formula, functions and SQL queries to perform for data calculations.
Course 6: Share Data Through the Art of Visualization
Story telling via data visualization is a fundamental part of bringing your data insights to life. Here, the program teaches creation of dashboards with BI tool Tableau, which can be crafted into compelling slideshows and shared via presentations to stakeholders.
Course 7: Data Analysis with R Programming
Hands down my favorite course, it teaches the use of R Studio to visualize data and generate data analysis notebooks. R offers a broad collection of visualization libraries and packages, along with extensive online documentation that guides students on their usage.
Course 8: The Capstone Project – Complete a Case Study
The instructor puts the student’s recently acquired analytical skills to test. It is an optional project that once completed, can be used in the student’s online portfolio. Lastly, it also provides the students with helpful materials for their job-hunting process. From interview instances and tips on how to negotiate salaries, the Google Data Analytics course issues a certificate to the students that complete the course. This certificate can be shared across professional networks of one’s choosing. Find mine attached below!
Conclusion
In conclusion, the program provides an enriching educational experience and serves as a stepping stone for data analyst enthusiasts. The demand for data analysts continues to grow globally and rapidly across multiple industries. From health, tech, banking, finance, logistics etc. every industry works with data and requires data analysts to make sense of their numbers and improve business processes. Having the technical and analytical abilities to work with data is not only valuable but very essential. And I know from experience, that the Google Data Analytics Course can help you get that!
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