Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate Review

How Much Does It Cost To Become Certified In Google Data Analytics

The Google Data Analytics Certification costs $312 in total. Coursera offers the course as part of their $39 per month Coursera plus subscription. Students take an average of 8 months to complete the course and become certified . Before committing to a paid plan, Coursera offers a 7-day free trial to review the course material.

Enter The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate

Google launched its Data Analytics Professional Certificate in March of 2021. When I saw the run up to it I was quite intrigued. When Google does something related to data its worth a look in my opinion. A quick glance of the syllabus revealed that the main tools they cover are spreadsheets, Tableau and R and SQL . The course also goes beyond the technical skills and looks more holistically at how to think with an analytical mindset, work with others and communicate. At a high level, these are signals that the Certification has good potential.

Since its launch, Ive seen many positive reviews of it by students. There are also many people in forums such as the r/DataAnalysis subreddit that ask whether the course is worth it, whether theyll land a job, or at the very least develop the skills theyll need for data analysis.

The Certification is quite extensive with over 180 hours of instruction and hundreds of practice-based assessments spread across 8 courses. It has a capstone project. At the time of writing, it boasts over 450 000 enrolments and over 30 000 ratings with an average of 4.8 stars out of 5.

Certification Of Professional Achievement In Data Sciences

Level: Beginner levelDuration: 12 credit hours Offered by Columbia Universitys Data Science Institute , this certification program is ideal for students who want to develop key data analytics skills.

The Certification of Professional Achievement in Data Sciences focuses on building strong foundations, preparing the students for a career in data science.

This is a non-degree and part-time program. Learners have to complete a minimum of 12 credit hours and four core courses, including:

• Algorithms for Data Science requires a basic knowledge of programming, calculus, and algebra. This course will dive into data organization, modeling, sorting, linear programming, and much more.
• Probability and Statistics for Data Science requires basic knowledge of calculus. This course will take you through the application of probability and statistical analysis in data science.
• Machine Learning for Data Science requires a strong background in calculus, probability theory, and stats. This is an introductory course for machine learning.
• Exploratory Data Analysis and Visualization requiring a background in programming, this course will develop foundations in data visualization, perception of discrete and continuous variables, and much more.

You can apply for this data analyst certification program from anywhere in the world.

Pricing

This is the most expensive option on the list.

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What Will You Discover

This certificates goal is to teach students how to analyze and process data to gain valuable business insights. Youll be able to do the following by the end of this Google certification:

Is The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate Any Good

Whether youre a job seeker looking to boost your career or a hiring manager eager to find skilled staff, this is a pertinent question.

In this review, I assess the certificate based on the syllabus, and not the course content itself i.e. I have not completed any of the course work :). Im interested in what I can learn about the course as someone who might hire an analyst with these credentials, or want to recommend it to someone entering the broad field of Data Science.

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Provides Good Certification Credentials

What you see above is an example of the Professional Certificate that you will receive when you complete all 8 courses of the .

Its a screengrab of my certificate!

Looks pretty neat right?

This is something you can look forward to when you complete yours!

In case youre wondering, you wont need to pass any sort of separate exam to get the Google Data Analytics certificate, only just the courses quizzes.

My Coursera Dashboard

For those new to Coursera, its a massive open online course platform that hosts many other online certification programs from well-known institutions.

Being one of the most well-known online platforms for learning skills, I would definitely say that having your certificate verifiable on Coursera is a great thing!

Also, who doesnt know about Google? Having a certificate from Google is probably one of the largest reasons why youre here just like me!

Having a Professional Certificate by Google would surely be impressive to employers.

In fact, this certificate provides some really great credentials that can be included in a data analyst resume.

I even received a link to verify the certificate on Coursera thats accessible even after I cancel my subscription to Coursera Plus for this certificate.

You can check out mine at this link here.

Google Data Analytics Certification Accreditation Badge by Credly

In addition to the verifiable Professional Certificate available on Coursera, youll also obtain an Accreditation Badge, issued by Credly.

Cons Of The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate

• No University Credit Units. The certificate program does not come with any university credit. This means that even if you get the job-ready skills you need, you cannot apply them toward a degree program or advanced studies in the analytics field.
• The Money Adds Up and There is no Life Time Access. The $14 monthly charge might seem small but it adds up over time. Also, there is no lifetime access so when you stop paying, you lose all your access to the available resources. Financial aid is available, but only for qualifying individuals.

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Data Analysis With R Programming

In this level you will dive into the R programming language ,youll discover how R can help you structure, organize, and clean your data using functions and other processes.

Ok you maybe wondering why they teachR not python?

I asked myself this question too because Although R is a really popular programming language for data analysis, Python has some advantages over it.

The python language has started to become more widespread as well as the libraries involved with it. Its a language that many have found to be easy to use and suitable for their particular needs when working with data analytics software.

But that shouldnt stop you from taking this certificate. You could take a python course after you finish this program.

How Long Did I Take To Finish The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate

I took a total of 9 weeks to complete the entire program. This took much a much shorter time than suggested by Google because I was waiting to start my first full-time job after completing college.

I had spare time on my hands and could go faster!

As you can see from the screengrab below, the approximate time suggested by Google was 37 weeks to finish up all courses.

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How Many Hours Is The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate

The Google Data Analytics Certification takes 174 hours to complete. The certificate includes 7 courses with an average of 20 hours of learning each. The Google Data Analytics Certificate also features about 21 hours worth of video lecture content. and an average of 175 minutes of video lectures for each course.

Foundations: Data Data Everywhere:

This course includes four quizzes and a course challenge exercise that allows you to put your data cleaning skills to the test. The course challenge is simple to complete if youve gone over the practical examples presented at the start of the course.

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Ask Questions To Make Data

The very first Phase of the Data Analysis process, known as the Ask Phase, is what the course is based on.

This course addressed the following topics:

• Asking effective Questions using SMART Methodology
• Questions to avoid while asking
• Types of Stakeholders and their roles in the project
• How to work with the stakeholders and tips for Communication

My favourite part about this course was how a data analyst should make a Scope of Work for the project they are working on. It helps in keeping track of the workflow of the project. The SOW consists of Deliverables, Milestones, Timeline, and Reports in order for the project to meet its deadlines and goals through excellent planning and coordination by the team members.

Structure Of Each Course

Diving a bit deeper into the syllabi of the courses, I can see quite a good mix of videos, exercises, quizzes and readings. Videos tend to be very short at just a few minutes each, whereas time allocated for readings are usually longer at around 10 to 20 minutes a piece. Theres also checklists, learning logs, course challenges and self-reflections.

Courses are peppered with introductions into different types of analytic roles, presumably presented by people with those roles. I like that this will broaden students horizons when job hunting.

The content ratings of each one also seem generally very high.

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Provides Basic Knowledge Of Analytics

When youre looking at starting a course to gain entry-level knowledge, youd ideally want something with a good introduction to the basics.

Thats exactly what this course gave me a basic foundation of knowledge of analytics.

Here are some of the skills I could pick out from the course that you will learn as you go through the program:

• Analytical skills
• Data governance and security
• Stakeholder management and asking the right questions
• Effective presentation of visualizations
• Crafting a good online analytics portfolio

If youre curious to know more about Tableau, you can read more about it in my other post here.

I personally feel that Tableau is worth learning and this course is a great way to start!

Or if youd like to learn more about what SQL is, check out my other post on SQL here.

This career-focused analytics program does a great job of covering topics within the data analytics field, especially when covering skills used in a typical data analysts job.

To give you a better idea of what the course content is like for the basic skills, Ive included one of Googles YouTube video lectures below on Cleaning Data in SQL. This is definitely one area that many data analysts must have a basic understanding of!

To get a quick preview of what the basic lectures are like, do watch the video below:

Heres another video lecture covering the basics of using Spreadsheets as a method for data analysis. This was one of the lectures found in the course as well!

Amazon Aws Certified Big Data

Level: Intermediate levelDuration: Self-paced If you have at least 2 years of experience with AWS technology and want to showcase your expertise in big data analytics, the AWS Certified Big Data program is an ideal option for you.

While there are no strict prerequisites, the folks at Amazon do recommend completing one of their associate-level certifications or the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam.

Furthermore, having some experience with architecting AWS Big Data services and 5 years of experience in data analytics is highly recommended.

Pricing

As of now, the certification exam costs $300.

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Includes Access To Career Resources

At the end of the entire certification program, youll be given 3 main career resources which can be useful for your job applications.

Here they are:

This is the main career platform by Coursera that is offered to those who have achieved the Professional Certificates offered by Google.

Of course, this includes the Data Analytics Professional Certificate holders too!

This job portal shows listings that are exclusively available to those who have completed the certification. This means that job positions posted here welcome certificate holders rather than the usual college degree requirements.

Data analysts are quite different from BI analysts, and thats something many beginners would not know about. So do look out for both of such roles while youre on the platform.

For example, have a look at a screengrab of a job listing below for a Data Analytics Associate position

The screenshot below shows the qualifications they require. Not the Grow with Google Analytics Certificate this means that the data analytics professional certificate you earned will help!

To learn more about Grow with Google, check out this link.

Careercircle

This is the second career site that was recommended to me by Google after completing the certificate. Its a portal that connects you to US employers so if you currently live in the US, this might be a good resource for you.

Big Interview

Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate Review

Data analytics is a growing field with an ever-increasing demand for professionals.

The need for data analysts has increased by 18% in the past year alone. They are in high demand because they can help organizations make sense of their data and improve efficiency.

For that Google has launched the data analyticsprofessional certificate

This certificate is designed for people who are new to data analytics and want to get started with the data analytics field.

lets get started into a Google Data Analytics certificate review

Who is google data analytics certificate for

The best thing is that This certificate doesnt need any degree or previous knowledge in the data analytics field. In another word, it is very suitable for those who have just started their careers in data analytics.

The program will start with you from scratch and teach you the basics of data analytics, including how it works and why it is important.

So dont worry ,this course is very beginner-friendly.

Google data analytics courses review

If you did know yet, this program includes eight different courses

which are:

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Who Should Not Take The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate

Individuals who only want physical classes for learning or those who intend to learn Python from the course or do not aspire to be data or business analysts should not take the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate.

Due to the online nature of the program, traditional classroom settings are not available. This means that individuals who only want physical classes for their learning should not be taking this certificate.

Anyone who is intending to learn Python should not take this course as it is not covered.

Also, any learner that is unable to commit many hours of learning should avoid this certificate for the time being because of the intense time-heavy content of the course.

The Context Of My Review

The course is developed by Google, one of the largest tech companies in the world. I assume what they teach and ask for is very relevant for them and other big tech firms however I have no experience working in those organisations

My interest is the more general situation where many hundreds of thousands of companies are. A few hundred to a few thousand employees and the organisation needs people with skills to work with data.

My assessment on whether this is a good or bad Certification centres around questions like:

I think we cant expect too much from any course thats teaching these skills, especially to someone just entering it . The field of Data Science, and the role of Data Analyst is so broad and diverse that itll be easy to provide criticism if the material doesnt fit your view of whats important. We must acknowledge that even working professionals, decades into their career can be on completely different paths and largely disagree on what an introductory course should cover.

If Google is able to produce a course that most people can say does give some value to newcomers, then I think theyll have done well.

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Google Data Analytics Certification Exams

To achieve the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate you need to finish the eight courses including all marked assessments.

At the end of each week, youll be presented with a number of exercises. Some are optional but others are required and marked. Once you complete all marked exams, you can download your Google certification.

The quizzes are not difficult to do. You can see below a couple of sample questions to get a feeling of what the exams look like.

Everything that is asked in the exams is covered in the course lessons with the exception of exercises that has to do with critical thinking.

Pros Of The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate

• The Syllabus Was Designed by Google. This certificate program is designed and hosted by Google. The course has some weight in the job market compared to other Coursera data analytics courses or specializations that help you develop your analytical skills.
• You Will Learn About Data Analytics. It covers core data analytics topics like exploratory data analysis, questioning for data-driven business decisions, cleaning data after collection, R programming, and data visualization. The hands-on projects during each course and the capstone project to round it all up are based on real-world datasets.
• You Will Get a Career Credential. The shareable certificate you get from Google Career Certificates reflects everything you’ve learned during the certificate program and can be displayed on LinkedIn or any other professional site profile. This might help you to secure a junior data analyst role in a tech company that makes data-driven decisions.
• Seven Day Free Trial and Cancel Subscription Anytime. You can start the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate program for free and learn for the first seven days before the billing starts. After that, you need to pay a monthly fee of $14 for the online courses which you can cancel anytime.

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