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When you're thinking about starting a new career or improving your skills, you don't need to go to college right away — or at all, to be honest. In this digital world, there are plenty of online programs, boot camps, certifications, and courses that can help you get started without ridiculous expenses.
For those who want to improve their skills without having to pay tuition fees, this blog is for you. I'm going to go over 9 professional certificates you can earn that will get you started right away, or you can continue with these certifications and earn a degree.
IBM Data Engineering
Link: IBM Data Engineering
Duration: 6 months, 10 hours per week
Level: Beginner
A start-to-finish course, from beginner to expert. This data engineering course, offered by IBM, is a professional certificate consisting of 16 series. In this course, you will learn the practical skills and most up-to-date knowledge that data engineers use in their daily roles. Then, you will dive into building, designing, and managing relational databases and applying database administration (DBA) concepts to relational database management systems (RDBMS) such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and IBM Db2.
Over time, you will develop practical knowledge of NoSQL and Big Data using MongoDB, Cassandra, Cloudant, Hadoop, Apache Spark, Spark SQL, Spark ML, and Spark Streaming. By the end of the course, you will be able to implement ETL and Data Pipelines with Bash, Airflow, and Kafka; design, populate, and deploy data warehouses; and create BI reports and interactive dashboards.
This program is ACE® recommended and can earn up to 12 college credits upon completion.
IBM Data Science
Link: IBM Data Science
Duration: 6 months, 10 hours per week
Level: Beginner
This IBM Professional Certificate in Data Science available through Coursera is designed to teach beginners what data science is and how to think and work like a data scientist. You'll learn to master the most up-to-date practical skills and learn the tools, languages, and libraries used by professional data scientists, including Python and SQL.
You will also learn the basics of importing and cleaning datasets, analyzing and visualizing data, and then building and evaluating machine learning models and pipelines with Python. Last but not least, apply your new skills to real-world projects and build a portfolio of data projects that showcase your competence to employers.
This program is recommended by ACE® and FIBAA: upon completion, you can earn up to 12 university credits and 6 ECTS credits.
IBM Full Stack Software Developer
Link: IBM Full Stack Software Developer
Duration: 5 months, 10 hours per week
Level: Beginner
Start your journey and prepare for a career in the high-growth field of software development. In this program, you will learn in-demand skills and tools for developing front-end, back-end, and cloud-native applications.
You will learn how to build, deploy, test, run, and manage full-stack cloud-native applications. Technologies covered include cloud foundations, GitHub, Node.js, React, CI/CD, containers, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift, Istio, databases, NoSQL, Django ORM, Bootstrap, application security, microservices, serverless computing, and more.
This program is recommended by ACE® and FIBAA: upon completion, you can earn up to 18 university credits and 6 ECTS credits.
IBM Data Analyst
Link: IBM Data Analyst
Duration: 5 months, 10 hours per week
Level: Beginner
This course, provided by IBM, provides you with the basic principles of data analysis and a better understanding of data manipulation, analytical techniques, and more. It consists of 8 courses such as Introduction to Data Analysis, Excel Basics for Data Analysis, Data Visualization and Dashboards with Excel and Cognos, Python for Data Science, ai and Development, Python Project for Data Science, Databases and SQL for Data Science with Python, Data Analysis with Python, Data Visualization with Python, and IBM Data Analyst Capstone Project
These courses will help you kick-start your career as a data analyst by providing you with the principles and fundamentals of data analysis and building practical skills. You will also gain experience with data analysis projects and tools such as SQL, Python, and Jupyter Notebooks, which will help you understand what your day-to-day work as a data analyst will look like.
This program is recommended by ACE® and FIBAA: upon completion, you can earn up to 12 university credits and 6 ECTS credits.
Machine Learning Specialization
Link: DeepLearning.ai Machine Learning Specialization
Duration: 2 months at 10 hours per week
Level: Beginner
Master ai fundamentals and develop practical machine learning skills in ai visionary Andrew Ng’s 3-course beginner’s program. This program will teach you the fundamentals of machine learning and how to use these techniques to build real-world ai applications.
You will learn how to build ML models with NumPy and scikit-learn, how to build and train supervised models for binary classification and prediction tasks. You will also learn how to build and train a neural network with TensorFlow to perform multi-class classification, and how to build and use decision trees and tree ensemble methods.
Upon completion of this specialization, you will be eligible to earn college credit if you are admitted and enroll in one of the following online degree programs.
IBM artificial intelligence Developer
Link: IBM artificial intelligence Developer
Duration: 6 months, 4 hours per week
Level: Beginner
As we already know, ai and generative ai are revolutionizing our world, and that means the demand for ai software developers with the right cutting-edge skills is increasing. This IBM ai Developer Professional Certificate will give you the much-sought-after experience in building ai-powered chatbots and apps and get you started on your ai career in just 6 months.
ai Developers are valued software engineers who design, develop, and deploy ai and build ai-powered applications and virtual assistants. In this course, you will master the fundamentals of software engineering, ai, generative ai, drive engineering, programming in HTML, JavaScript, and Python. Through hands-on labs and projects, you will gain practical experience building ai applications that you can talk about in interviews.
By completing this Professional Certificate, you will be eligible to earn college credit if you are admitted and enroll in one of the following online degree programs.
Google Data Analytics
Link: Google Data Analytics
Duration: 6 months, 10 hours per week
Level: Beginner
The Google Data Analytics Professional Certification is a very popular course that allows you to understand the practices and processes used by data analyst associates. As we see more and more organizations moving their operations and data to the cloud, the importance of understanding cloud computing and its access to data is an important and highly in-demand skill.
You will learn key analytical skills such as data cleaning, analysis, and visualization, as well as tools such as spreadsheets, SQL, R programming, and Tableau. With these skills, you will learn how to visualize and present data results in commonly used dashboards, presentations, and visualization platforms.
This Professional Certificate is recommended by ACE® and is eligible for college credit at participating U.S. colleges and universities.
Google IT Support
Link: Google IT Support
Duration: 6 months, 10 hours per week
Level: Beginner
The tech industry is very complex. It’s like building a house from scratch and each contractor is responsible for ensuring that the various levels always meet the standard of excellence based on their experience. This is where IT support comes into play.
In this Google IT Support Professional Certification, you will learn about the daily tasks performed in IT support, including computer assembly, wireless networking, installation, and customer service. You will also learn how to identify problems to troubleshoot and debug them using tools such as Linux, domain name systems, command line interface, and binary code.
This Professional Certificate is recommended by ACE® and is eligible for college credit at participating U.S. colleges and universities.
Google Project Management
Link: Google Project Management
Duration: 6 months, 10 hours per week
Level: Beginner
The tech industry is moving fast and new projects are launched every day. This is where I introduce project management and its importance in any industry. Without project management, many of these new tools would never have been able to be implemented and we would not have had access to them.
Project management is the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge, and experience to achieve specific objectives and ensure the success of a project. In this Google Project Management Professional certification, you will learn how to document projects effectively, learn the fundamentals of Agile project management and Scrum, as well as practice strategic communication and develop your problem-solving skills.
This Professional Certificate is recommended by ACE® and is eligible for college credit at participating U.S. colleges and universities.
Ending
Here are 9 different specialization courses you can take to get started in the industry and be ready to work within 5-6 months. These specialization courses have great credibility and many people jump straight into the industry once they have completed the course. If you want to continue your training and take it to the next level, you can do so with these 9 courses.
Nisha Arya Nisha is a data scientist, freelance technical writer, and KDnuggets community editor and manager. She is especially interested in providing career advice on data science or tutorials and theoretical knowledge on data science. Nisha covers a wide range of topics and wishes to explore the different ways in which artificial intelligence can benefit the longevity of human life. Nisha is an enthusiastic learner and is looking to expand her technological knowledge and writing skills while helping to mentor others.
