The Best Data Analytics Certifications to Earn After Getting A Degree

Earning a degree in data analytics can open the doors to many career opportunities. However, numerous certifications are also available for students who want to take their education to the next level. These certifications help students hone their skills and show potential employers they are proactive about learning and improving. Certification can be helpful for students who are just getting started and people already working in the field of data analytics who want to reach their professional goals.

Certification Options:

Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate

When trying to analyze data, it is common to work with multiple unrelated sources. Using software services, apps, and connectors such as Power BI makes it easier to turn these data sources into coherent, visually impressive, and interactive insights. One of the certifications offered by Microsoft is the Power BI Data Analyst Associate. This certification measures users' skills in using Power BI to prepare data, model data, visualize and analyze data, and deploy and maintain assets. Power BI data analysts work with business stakeholders to identify business requirements and collaborate with other parties to identify and acquire relevant data. The exam can be scheduled through Microsoft, and free practice assessments are also available to help users prepare (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/power-bi-data-analyst-associate/). 

Tableau Certified Data Analyst

Tableau is another analytics platform that is designed to streamline the process of exploring and managing data to discover and share insights. Data analytics experts who want to prove their basic skills and product knowledge of Tableau can complete the Tableau Certified Data Analyst certification. Earning the certification requires completing an exam aimed at users with at least six months of experience with the Tableau and Tableau products. It validates core Tableau knowledge and hands-on development skills, and the certification is valid for two years after successfully completing the exam. An exam guide is available from the official Tableau website (https://www.tableau.com/learn/certification/tableau-certified-data-analyst-exam-guide). 

AWS Certified Data Analytics - Speciality

Individuals with experience and expertise working with AWS services to design, build, and maintain analytics solutions can complete their AWS Certified Data Analytics - Speciality certification. This certification allows users to showcase their expertise in various data-related roles. It is an industry-recognized credential that covers a broad range of analytics services and is helpful for data analysts, data engineers, business intelligence developers, machine learning engineers, and more. The exam can be scheduled via Amazon, and an exam guide and sample questions are available for download (https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-data-analytics-specialty/). 

Microsoft Certified; Azure Data Scientist Associate

Azure is a cloud platform featuring more than 200 products and cloud services. People whose work involves applying data science and machine learning to implement and run machine learning workloads on Azure can benefit from the Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate certification. It measures users' skills in designing and preparing a machine learning solution, exploring data and training models, preparing models for deployment, and deploying and retraining models. The exam can be scheduled from the Microsoft website, and practice assessments are also available (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/azure-data-scientist/). 

Google Cloud Certified - Professional Data Engineer

The Google Cloud Certified - Professional Data Engineer certification is beneficial for people whose work involves collecting, transforming, and publishing data. Although there are no prerequisites for taking the exam, it is recommended to have at least three years of industry experience, which includes at least one year of designing and managing solutions using Google Cloud. The exam assesses users' abilities to design data processing systems, store the data, maintain and automate data workloads, ingest and process the data, and prepare and use data for analysis. Registration for the exam is available from the Google website (https://cloud.google.com/learn/certification/data-engineer). 

SAS Certified Data Scientist

SAS features a Certified Data Scientist certification that allows students to choose from two paths. They can start with either Data Curation Professional or Advance Programming Professional and then take either Advanced Analytics or AI & Machine Learning Professional to complete the coursework. The certification highlights users' abilities to manipulate and gain insights from big data with a variety of SAS and open-source tools, as well as their ability to deploy models at scale using the flexible, robust SAS environment. The exam can be scheduled via the SAS website, and free trials are also available (https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/credentials/advanced-analytics/data-scientist.html). 

CompTIA Data Plus

The CompTIA Data+ certification is aimed at professionals who are tasked with developing and promoting data-driven business decision-making. Students are taught vital skills such as data concepts and environments, data mining, visualization, data analysis, data governance, quality, and controls. The certification applies to various jobs, such as data architect, data analyst, data scientist, business analyst, reporting analyst, and operations analyst. 

Conclusion

Even with only a degree, plenty of career options are available for people passionate about data analytics. However, getting certified can help you feel more confident, help prove your competency to recruiters, and make your resume more attractive. Remember that most certifications must be renewed every few years to ensure that your skills and knowledge are up to date.