Google Data Analytics Certificate

The badge I earned from Google's offering on Coursera

I always keep in mind my previous principal's advice of spending at least 20% of one's private time or protected time during the holidays for personal/professional development. This time I took the advantage of paying US$1 for a month's access to Coursera Plus which offers MOOCs with certifications from recognised partners.

I recalled that Google launched the Skills Ignition SG, a Grow with Google programme, as a partnership between Google and three Singapore government agencies: the Economic Development Board, Infocomm & Media Development Authority and SkillsFuture Singapore. There are apparently 3 pathways, and the courses on Coursera are part of the third one. I believe that the skills taught in the course will help me in my growth as an educator and who knows if it might bring me more opportunities than before.

The course covered a lot of things, including how to clean data, what questions to ask, how to apply design thinking, how to analyse, how to tell the data story effectively and even how to use R as well as how to get an entry-level data analyst position.

For those who are interested and feel that you are already skilled in Data Analytics, you can skip the videos from the first few courses but take a diagnostics test as well as complete the weekly assessments. I was able to complete the whole certification relatively fast because of that and the fact that there were no peer assessments which often took some time to clear.

Data-related jobs and the descriptions

2021 salary range by 33 Talent (the HR Partner for Skills Ignition SG)

The capstone project at the end was also quite a fun experience. I had to look into readily available data for case studies to put in my portfolio and I am glad that I have had the chance to explore the use of Tableau and more recently Macros for data analytics. My next project would be to use R to do Social Network Analytics or something like sociograms which I wrote about before. Those could come in handy for peer relations in school or even within the classroom. I will leave some of the helpful infographics from the course below, if you want more, consider taking up the course for your own development. :)

David McCandless viz elements (Venn Diagram)

Design Thinking

Principles of Design