Data science course today are very common — both on the internet and in the form of training centres. However, there is an inaccurate notion most people have that, free online courses are not worthy, and that they don’t have any value.
Obviously, that is not true of every free course. Now, there are big names from the industry who are providing free data science certification courses.
Contribution By Tech Giants
Three years ago, Redmond-based tech giant started the Microsoft Professional Program with a mission to helping tech enthusiast build and upskill their expertise and knowledge to land and succeed in emerging jobs in analytics. Since the very beginning, Microsoft has been a help to numerous techies to take their skills to the next level.
Google’s Analytics Academy by Google is a platform that focuses on helping analytics enthusiasts to understand and learn the company’s tools in order to grow business through intelligent data collection and analysis.
When it comes to certification, it is not just about making the newcomers or the enthusiasts data science-ready; rather, it’s about considering employees and professionals as well. IBM earlier this year, in collaboration with The Open Group, IBM has started its own data scientist certification program.
Since the get-go, the program seemed to be good and recently, the company has announced that the 140 of its employees have successfully completed the course are now certified data scientist. Furthermore, even though the course was first done by the IBM employees, it is also available to the public in The Open Group’s official website.
Why Are They Interested In Educating For Free?
These tech giants are undoubtedly providing a great platform for people to upskill and enter the data science domain. But they why they are doing so? One of the key answers is a sheer shortage of data science talent.
According to a LinkedIn report, last year there was a shortage of more than 1,50,000 people with data science skills in the US. And that was the reason why IBM entered the space with its certification.
Another reason which is completely undeniable is bringing more and more users to the products developed by the company. For example at the Google Analytics Academy, the courses are designed to train professionals in making the best out of Google Analytics tools.
With the rise of internet activity, the need for analytics is also increasing and Google Analytics without a doubt is one of the leaders in the space. There are several companies that use the tools by Google, but a talent shortage in the domain is a big hurdle for them. Through its courses and pieces of training, Google is definitely creating a huge pool of certified professionals exclusively for Google analytics that companies could on-board for their analytics needs.
Outlook
Whether these big companies have entered the domain with a motive or not, whatever they are providing, it is something that is really beneficial for not only them but also for the industry and the professionals. It is without a doubt, is a win-win situation for all.
