Everybody seems to be talking about the importance of data these days. Data exists in the raw format, which is not useful on its own.
However, with careful processing, we can generate actionable insights from them, which can help in business process optimization, more informed decision-making, fund channeling, and so on. In other words, companies perform ‘data analysis’ to manipulate raw information and identify hidden trends and patterns which may be ignored otherwise.
The data analytics process involves defining business objectives, data exploration (verifying the quality of data collected), data cleaning, data modeling, data evaluation, and deployment.
Today, data analysts are hailed as one of the most in-demand technology talents.
Do you have any idea about how to learn data analytics from scratch?
If not, then this article is for you. We have listed down some of the ways you can get started with data analytics.
Companies these days are ready to pay extremely competitive compensation to skilled data analysts.
This is the reason many training providers now offer online Data analytics courses and help professionals gain the right skills and become successful data analysts.
Read on to find out more!
Stepping into the Data Analytics World
People take many ways to become familiar with the ins and outs of data analytics.
You can either refer to books, online tutorials, free online courses, graduate degree programs, or paid instructor-led training based on your unique learning needs.
For a working professional, it is more convenient to take an online course, as they would learn from industry experts and do not need to take extra time off their hectic schedule to attend classes at a physical location.
Here we have mentioned some of the ways to learn data analytics – books, training courses, and certifications.
Books on Data Analytics
If you enjoy reading books, then there are a couple of good data analytics books you can go through. As a beginner, it may be tough to decide which book to prefer, so here we have listed some books which are worth your reading time and money:
- Data Science for Business: What You Need to Know about Data Mining and Data Analytic Thinking – Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett
- Business unIntelligence: Insight and Innovation beyond Analytics and Big Data – Dr. Barry Devlin
- Learning R: A Step-by-Step Function Guide to Data Analysis – Richard Cotton
- Data Analytics Made Accessible – Dr. Anil Maheshwari
- Data Analytics: Become a Master in Data Analytics – Richard Dorsey
Training Course
Though there are many reliable training programs available on the internet that help you learn data analytics, here we have described one course that may fit all your needs.
Data Analyst Master’s Program – Simplilearn
Simplilearn is a popular edtech platform where you will find courses related to most of the in-demand digital skills that help you survive in the highly competitive job market.
This Data Analyst Master’s Program is your one-stop solution to learning analytics tools and techniques, Python and R programming, working with SQL databases, creating data visualizations, and applying statistics and predictive analytics in a business environment. The program is designed in collaboration with IBM and features live masterclasses, Ask Me Anything sessions, and hackathons from IBM.
With a blended learning approach, you will go through a cutting-edge curriculum to become industry-ready for top data analyst job roles. Here’s the learning path of this program:
- Introduction to Data Analytics Course
- Business Analytics with Excel
- Programming Basics and Data Analytics with Python
- Tableau Training
- Data Analyst Capstone
You can also choose from Elective courses to brush up on your knowledge, like R Programming for Data Science, Power BI, Programming Refresher, SQL training, and Data Science with R Programming. The instructors for this course are leading practitioners who bring the latest best practices and case studies to sessions and help you learn data analytics by working on real-world problems. The Capstone projects involve real-world data sets with virtual labs for practical learning.
Data Analytics Certifications
Earning a data analytics certification is another great way to gain the right skills and demonstrate to employers that your expertise matches industry standards. Today, several reputed companies offer data analytics certifications that are recognized across industries.
Some of them include:
- Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate
- Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate
- AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty
- CompTIA Data+
- Cloudera Certified Associate Data Analyst
Such certifications are often associated with a rigorous exam that a candidate needs to pass after they fulfill the eligibility criteria. As you can see, these credentials are administered by established companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Achieving any of these certifications can also open your doors to these high-paying tech companies.
After you have gained enough knowledge on data analytics, either through books, training courses, or certifications, it is time to polish your practical skills.
You can work on some industry projects, get used to popular data analytics tools, and show that you have gained some work experience and are ready to take up an entry-level data analytics job. You can even participate in online challenges organized by companies like Kaggle, where you will work on real-world datasets to solve a business problem. Getting a job would be much easier after that. Happy learning!
