Image by Author | Canva
When you’re thinking about starting a new career or upskilling, there is no need to jump to university straight away, or at all to be honest. In this digital world, there are so many online programs, bootcamps, certifications and courses that can help you get started without the ridiculous expenses.
For those of you who want to upskill without having to pay tuition fees, this blog is for you. I will go through 9 professional certificates that you can take which can get your foot in the door right away, or you can continue to take these certifications to the next level and get a degree.
IBM Data Engineering
Link: IBM Data Engineering
Duration: 6 months, 10 hours a week
Level: Beginner
A course from start to finish, from beginner to expert. Offered by IBM, this data engineering course is a professional certificate consisting of 16 series. In this course, you will learn the most up-to-date practical skills and knowledge data engineers use in their daily roles. You will then dive into creating, designing and managing relational databases & applying database administration (DBA) concepts to RDBMSs such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, & IBM Db2.
Over time you will develop a working knowledge of NoSQL & 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 & Data Pipelines with Bash, Airflow & Kafka; architect, populate, and deploy Data Warehouses; and create BI reports & interactive dashboards.
This program is ACE® recommended—when you complete, you can earn up to 12 college credits.
IBM Data Science
Link: IBM Data Science
Duration: 6 months, 10 hours a week
Level: Beginner
This IBM Data Science Professional Certificate available via Coursera has been designed to teach beginners what data science is and how to think and work like a data scientist. You will learn how 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 the data, and then building and evaluating machine learning models and pipelines using Python. Last but not least, apply your new skills to real-world projects and build a portfolio of data projects that showcase your proficiency to employers.
This program is ACE® and FIBAA recommended —when you complete, you can earn up to 12 college credits and 6 ECTS credits.
IBM Full Stack Software Developer
Link: IBM Full Stack Software Developer
Duration: 5 months, 10 hours a week
Level: Beginner
Start your journey and prepare for a career in the high-growth field of software development. In this program, you’ll learn in-demand skills and tools for front-end, back-end, and cloud-native application development.
You’ll 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 ACE® and FIBAA recommended—when you complete, you can earn up to 18 college credits and 6 ECTS credits.
IBM Data Analyst
Link: IBM Data Analyst
Duration: 5 months, 10 hours a week
Level: Beginner
Provided by IBM, this course provides you with core 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 Analytics, Excel Basics for Data Analysis, Data Visualization and Dashboards with Excel and Cognos, Python for Data Science, AI & 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 get your data analyst career up and running by providing you with the principles and fundamentals of data analysis while being able to gain hands-on skills. You will also get project experience and data analysis tools such as SQL, Python, and Jupyter Notebooks helping you understand what your day-to-day as a Data Analyst will look like.
This program is ACE® and FIBAA recommended—when you complete, you can earn up to 12 college credits and 6 ECTS credits.
Machine Learning Specialisation
Link: DeepLearning.AI Machine Learning Specialisation
Duration: 2 months at 10 hours a week
Level: Beginner
Master fundamental AI concepts and develop practical machine learning skills in the beginner-friendly, 3-course program by AI visionary Andrew Ng. 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 & scikit-learn, build & train supervised models for prediction & binary classification tasks). You will also learn how to build & train a neural network with TensorFlow to perform multi-class classification, & build & use decision trees & tree ensemble methods.
When you complete this specialisation, you can earn college credit if you are admitted and enrolled in one of the following online degree programs.
IBM AI Developer
Link: IBM AI Developer
Duration: 6 months, 4 hours a week
Level: Beginner
As we already know, AI and generative AI are revolutionising our world, and that means the demand for AI Software Developers with the right cutting-edge skills is soaring. This IBM AI Developer Professional Certificate will equip you with sought-after expertise in building AI-powered chatbots and apps and enable you to launch your AI career in just 6 months.
AI Developers are prized software engineers who design, develop, and implement AI and gen AI-powered apps And virtual assistants. In this course, you will master the fundamentals of software engineering, AI, generative AI, prompt engineering, HTML, JavaScript and Python programming. Through hands-on labs and projects, you’ll gain practical experience in building AI apps you can talk about in interviews.
When you complete this Professional Certificate, you can earn college credit if you are admitted and enrolled in one of the following online degree programs.
Google Data Analytics
Link: Google Data Analytics
Duration: 6 months, 10 hours a week
Level: Beginner
A very popular course, Google’s Data Analytics professional certification allows you to understand the practices and processes used by associate data analysts. As we see more and more organisations shift their operations and data to the cloud, the importance of understanding cloud computing and its access to data is an important and high-demand skill.
You will learn key analytical skills, such as data cleaning, analysis, & visualisation as well as tools such as spreadsheets, SQL, R programming, and Tableau. Using these skills, you will learn how to visualise and present data findings in dashboards, presentations and commonly used visualisation platforms.
This Professional Certificate has ACE® recommendation. It is eligible for college credit at participating U.S. colleges and universities.
Google IT Support
Link: Google IT Support
Duration: 6 months, 10 hours a week
Level: Beginner
The tech industry has so much to it. It’s like building a house from scratch and every contractor is responsible for ensuring that the different levels always meet the gold standard based on their expertise. This is where IT support comes into it.
In this Google IT Support Professional Certification, you will learn about the day-to-day tasks that IT support deals with which include computer assembly, wireless networking, installation and customer service. You will also learn how to identify problems to troubleshoot and debug using tools such as Linux, Domain Name Systems, Command-Line Interface, and Binary Code.
This Professional Certificate has ACE® recommendation. It is eligible for college credit at participating U.S. colleges and universities.
Google Project Management
Link: Google Project Management
Duration: 6 months, 10 hours a week
Level: Beginner
The tech industry is moving quickly and new projects are getting released every day. This is where I introduce project management and its importance in any industry. Without project management, a lot of these new tools would have never been able to be deployed for us to have access to them.
Project management is the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge and experience to achieve specific objectives to ensure that a project is successful. In this Google Project Management Professional certification, you will learn how to effectively document projects, learn the foundations of Agile project management, Scrum and also practise strategic communication and develop your problem-solving skills.
This Professional Certificate has ACE® recommendation. It is eligible for college credit at participating U.S. colleges and universities.
Wrapping Up
There it is, 9 different specialisation courses you can take to get your foot in the door and be job-ready within 5 to 6 months. These specialisation courses are highly credible, with many people jumping straight into the industry once they have completed the course. If you want to continue your education and take it to the next level, you can do so with these 9 courses.
Nisha Arya is a data scientist, freelance technical writer, and an editor and community manager for KDnuggets. She is particularly interested in providing data science career advice or tutorials and theory-based knowledge around data science. Nisha covers a wide range of topics and wishes to explore the different ways artificial intelligence can benefit the longevity of human life. A keen learner, Nisha seeks to broaden her tech knowledge and writing skills, while helping guide others.