Data Science Training
Help · 17 Jun 2020, 12:02 · 17
If you where to start with data science and your employer will pay for training, where will you go for training? I am looking at mygreatlearning.com, explore-datascience.net, it-academy.co.za. I am looking for something structured that will actually mean something in the industry. Does anybody have any recommendations?
I would recommned explore data science academy
Simplilearn https://www.simplilearn.com/data-science-and-artificial-intelligence-masters-program
Thanks for the recommendation, this looks pretty good
The content is on point and there is also online classes as well.
I would advice you start on coursera, Machine learning course offered by Stanford taught by Andrew Ng.
This is a great course, and you can do it for free as it has been deprecated. Keep in mind that while the theoretical knowledge is bar none, this course covers Matlab/Octave. I mentored that course for a while too, until Coursera changed their mentorship policies.
That's great @DevilEars. Maybe you can possibly assist me in my learning path too.
Thanks, this is a great course, and I have started with it a while back, but then I got into a scholarship at Udemy "AI programming with Python". I would still love to finish it as the theoretical knowledge learned here is great.
Udemy Platform also provides a good road map training for Data Science: https://www.udemy.com/share/101W9cCUAZd19bQXg=/
Their courses aren't bad and you can pick them up for a few hundred Rand on a sale
Thanks, this does look like a course covering a lot. The only drawback for me is it is not as interactive as I would like it to be. I have heard the Q&A does not always get answered on some of these courses.
For employees, I will recommend greatlearning. They manage the post graduate diploma in data science and business analytics which is a 7months certificate programme at the prestigious University of Texas at Austin, USA where I also serve as a mentor. Reach out to me on LinkedIn for more details. My contact details is on my profile.
I can also recommend data camp.com if you aren't in paid employment.
Greetings RiaanJ
I am not familiar with those, however I have a subscription to DataCamp that I pay for myself. I was considering two vendors, namely DataCamp and DataQuest. Eventually, I settled on DataCamp because they are cheaper and they have more content that I am interested in. For me, it's mostly a hobby and a self-enrichment thing, although that may change soon.
DataQuest is more of a project driven platform, so it's great if you are a beginner and want to build a portfolio. If you need to upskill on a particular topic, then DataCamp is better and they keep adding new topics all the time. Their courses are OK, but I find that I learn more with their notebooks on a particular topic. The caveat there is that most of their content is in-browser so it doesn't obviously teach you much by means of production-ready code and/or projects. At least I haven't found that on their platform - it's probably there somewhere.
Of the ones you posted there, mygreatlearning looks the best purely because they follow a Coursera-type structure and you will get some sort of certification backed by an university. You also cover R, Tableau, and some broader topics, whereas explore-datascience seems focused on Python. it-academy seems to do IT certifications, I'm not sure if they do data science related content except if it's a Microsoft kind of Bussiness Intelligence certification.
Then what about the cost? Well, a certification at mygreatlearning is about $ 3 500, which is roughly R 59 500 at x17 rates, and it looks like you can do it in your own time, whereas a certification at explore-datascience seems to be a R 10 000 per month subscription, a course takes around 6 months, and it doesn't look like you can do it in your own time. That would make it about a R 60 000 minimum expense, and the 6 months of time that you need to spend. My DataCamp subscription is about $ 30 per month, and I get discount for an annual subscription so it worked out to about R 3 000 for the year. I won't have a credential that means anything in industry, though - just a lot of hands-on experience, plus the resources when I need it.
Bear in mind that you can also do an online Masters Degree in Data Science at roughly R 200 000 from one of the accredited universities via Coursera, which takes about 2 years. The structure looks similar, whereas you do more course work, more Capstone projects and then at least you'll have an MSC. It depends on what your employer has in mind and how much time and money they are willing to invest.
Hi DevilEars, thanks for the long reply. I honestly think R60000 would be the most I could get out of my employer. The great learning is a fixed fee and it looks like you also have to work within a timeline. The same with explore-datascience. But this is a one year program costing R30000. From what I have seen this one looks the most feasable and has a good structure as well. I would just like some feeback from people who has done some courses and if they think it was worth the money.
Hi Tsheomoagi, are you currently busy with this through them?
I completed the program in 2018.
Datacamp