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If you want to work as a Data Analyst getting a certification from Google is a great starting point.
In this review, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate.
We’ve gone through the courses and lessons and we’ll explain what the courses cover, what you’ll learn, and how much time you’ll need to become a Google certified data analyst.
What is Google Data Analytics Certification?
The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate will help you build the practical skills required to become a Data Analyst. The training program is developed by Google data engineers and is offered through Coursera as part of the Google Career Certification program.
This certificate has no prerequisites. It can be followed by anyone wishing to start a career in data analysis.
Upon completion of this course, you can apply for a number of jobs including junior data analyst, associate data analyst, and marketing analyst.
The average salary for data professionals in the US is around $67,900 per year which makes this entry-level certification one of the most valuable Google Career Certifications you can pursue.
By finishing this course and getting certified, you also get 12 college credits recognized by the ACE. This is the equivalent of 4 college courses at the bachelor’s degree level
What You’ll Learn?
The goal of this certificate is to help students understand how to analyze and process data to gain key business insights.
In particular, by the end of this Google certification, you’ll be able to:
- Perform all tasks required as a junior data analyst
- Use data cleaning, analysis, and visualization tools to analyze and present data
- Use the R programming language with SQL and Tableau to process data
- Perform complex calculations using spreadsheets
- Create dashboards to visualize and present data
Time Investment and Certification
The total time needed to complete the Google Data Analytics Certification is 181 hours. You can split this into 8 months of studying around 20 hours per month.
To get the Google Data Analytics Certificate, you need to complete eight courses including all graded assignments and exams.
How Much Does Google Data Analytics Certification Cost?
The total cost to get the Google Data Analytics Certification is $312. The course is offered by Coursera through the Coursera Plus subscription which costs $39 per month. On average it takes 8 months (8 X $39) for students to complete the course and get certified.
Coursera offers a 7-day free trial to review the course material before committing to a paid plan.
Google Data Analytics Certificate Contents
This certificate includes eight online courses. Although you can take the courses in any order you want, it is highly recommended to follow them in the order specified below.
- Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere
- Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions
- Prepare Data For Exploration
- Process Data from Dirty to Clean
- Analyze Data to Answer Questions
- Share Data Through the Art of Visualization
- Data Analysis with R Programming
- Data Analytics Capstone Project: Complete a Case Study
Course 1: Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere
This is an introductory course to Data Analytics. It’s a gentle introduction to the world of data analysis, data processing, and data presentation.
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to define and explain what data analytics is about, what data analysts do, and what tools they use to carry out everyday activities.
The material is broken down into five weeks and to complete this course, you’ll need around 21 hours.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Introducing data analytics | 5 hours |
| Week 2 | All about analytical thinking | 3 hours |
| Week 3 | The wonderful world of data | 4 hours |
| Week 4 | Set up your toolbox | 4 hours |
| Week 5 | Endless career possibilities | 5 hours |
This course includes 6 graded assignments. All exams are in the form of a multiple-choice quiz.
Course 2: Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions
The second course is “Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions”. In this course, you’ll learn how to identify needs and ask the right questions to make data-driven decisions.
You’ll also learn how to use structured thinking to understand and solve problems.
It’s a relatively short course spread into four weeks. To complete this course, you’ll need to allocate 19 hours.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Effective questions | 5 hours |
| Week 2 | Data-driven decisions | 3 hours |
| Week 3 | More spreadsheet basics | 7 hours |
| Week 4 | Always remember the stakeholder | 4 hours |
The exams for this course include 5 quizzes.
Course 3: Prepare Data For Exploration
When you complete the first two courses that are mostly theoretical, in the “Prepare Data for Exploration” course you’ll start data analysis using spreadsheets and SQL.
In particular, you’ll learn how to use SQL to extract data and how to use a spreadsheet to analyze and present your findings.
If you like working with data, you’ll enjoy this course more than any other course in the Google Data Analytics certification.
The total time investment required for this course is 21 hours
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Data types and structures | 7 hours |
| Week 2 | Bias, credibility, privacy, ethics, and access | 3 hours |
| Week 3 | Databases: Where data lives | 8 hours |
| Week 4 | Organizing and protecting your data | 3 hours |
The graded work includes 5 multiple-choice quizzes.
Course 4: Process Data from Dirty to Clean
In this course, you’ll go deeper into one of the most important aspects of data analysis which is data cleaning.
You’ll learn what data cleaning is and how to use spreadsheets and SQL to perform basic data-cleaning tasks.
This is a hands-on course and spreads into six weeks. The time needed to finish all the topics of this course is 23 hours.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | The importance of integrity | 4 hours |
| Week 2 | Sparkling-clean data | 6 hours |
| Week 3 | Cleaning data with SQL | 6 hours |
| Week 4 | Verify and report on your cleaning results | 2 hours |
| Week 5 | Optional: Adding data to your resume | 4 hours |
| Week 6 | Course challenge | 1 hour |
This course has four quizzes and a course challenge exercise that gives you the opportunity to apply your data cleaning skills in practice.
The course challenge is easy to complete, provided that you’ve gone through the practical examples demonstrated at the beginning of this course.
Course 5: Analyze Data to Answer Questions
The “Analyze Data to Answer Questions” course goes deeper into data analysis using advanced spreadsheet formulas and more complicated SQL statements.
You’ll learn how to perform complex data calculations to get answers to specific questions.
The total time required to finish this course is 26 hours.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Organizing data to begin analysis | 5 hours |
| Week 2 | Formatting and adjusting data | 5 hours |
| Week 3 | Aggregating data for analysis | 5 hours |
| Week 4 | Performing data calculations | 11 hours |
Course 6: Share Data Through the Art of Visualization
An important aspect of data analysis is how you present your findings to key stakeholders and this course is all about data presentation.
Besides tackling the theoretical parts of presenting data, this course is highly practical. You’ll learn how to use Tableau, a data visualization platform to create stunning presentations.
Even if you decide not to take all eight courses that are part of the Google Data Analytics certification, this course alone is worth it. Tableau is a very powerful platform for presenting data and the skills gained in this course are useful for a number of job positions.
The time needed to complete this course is 24 hours.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Visualizing data | 6 hours |
| Week 2 | Creating data visualizations with Tableau | 5 hours |
| Week 3 | Crafting data stories | 7 hours |
| Week 4 | Developing presentations and slideshows | 6 hours |
Course 7: Data Analysis with R Programming
“R” is a programming language that can help you with data analysis. This is a course that some people will like and others will hate.
If you want to learn how to use a powerful programming language to perform deep data analysis, then this is a great course for you. But, if you don’t want to get into programming, you may find this course not interesting, to say the least.
Nevertheless, if you plan is to become Google Data Analytics certified, you’ll have to go through this course and complete all exams (6 graded assignments in total).
You’ll need to allocate 38 hours to finish this course.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Programming and data analytics | 8 hours |
| Week 2 | Programming using RStudio | 5 hours |
| Week 3 | Working with data in R | 8 hours |
| Week 4 | More about visualizations, aesthetics, and annotations | 9 hours |
| Week 5 | Documentation and reports | 8 hours |
To avoid any confusion, this is not a difficult course to follow. The material is organized in a logical manner and it’s easy to follow for anyone, even beginners.
But, it’s a long course and for people that are not familiar with programming concepts, it will take more time to complete.
Course 8: Data Analytics Capstone Project: Complete a Case Study
This is the final course in the series. Once you successfully complete this course, you’ll gain your Google Data Analytics Certification!
Many employers use case studies to assess analytical skills and in this course, you’ll have the opportunity to complete an optional case study.
You’ll have to choose a scenario, ask questions, prepare, process, and analyze data to answer those questions. In essence, you’ll have to combine all the skills learned in the previous seven courses.
In addition, you’ll learn how to start searching for a data analytics job and how to prepare for the job interview.
The time needed to complete this course is 9 hours.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Learn about capstone basics | 2 hours |
| Week 2 | Optional: Building your portfolio | 4 hours |
| Week 3 | Optional: Using your portfolio | 2 hours |
| Week 4 | Putting your certificate to work | 1 hour |
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, you’ll 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.
How Hard is the Google Data Analytics Certification?
It’s not hard to get the Google Data Analytics Professional Certification. You don’t need a degree or prior experience with data analysis. All you need is basic computer skills and the ability to work with spreadsheets.
The course starts from the beginning introducing to students what data analysis is and how it works. It then explains in an easy-to-use language how to process data in spreadsheets and using the R programming language.
The exams you have to take at the end of each course and mostly multiple-choice questions together with some practical assignments.
If you’re willing to put the necessary effort to study the material carefully and go through the labs, you’ll have no problem finishing this course in eight months and getting the certification.
PRO TIP
Once you complete this course, you can continue your education to achieve a digital marketing certification, open up new career opportunities, and pursue jobs with a higher salary.
Is the Google Data Analytics Certification Worth it?
The Google Data Analytics Professional Certification is definitely worth the time and effort. It’s one of the most valuable entry-level certifications to pursue starting a career as a data analyst.
The course is prepared by Google Engineers and recognized in the industry as valid professional certification for entry-level positions.
The average salary for data analysts is around $67,900 per year (in the US), which is above the average compared to other related entry-level jobs.
In addition, getting a data analytics certification opens up new career opportunities. Companies in all industries are looking for certified professionals to analyze their data and come up with data-driven answers.
Other Google Career Certifications
The Google Data Analytics Certification is a professional certification offered as part of the Google Career Certification program. The program includes four more courses.
You can read our detailed reviews of all Google certifications to decide which is the best certification for you,
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