A certificate in data mining will typically take around a year to complete and will give students a good and broad range of skills necessary for a data mining position in the workplace. Individuals that are already in a professional position sometimes choose to take on a certificate program in order to gain or improve skills in this area in and to progress up the corporate ladder. They are also taken by individuals looking for a career change or coming straight out of high school and are looking for a thorough introduction to data mining.
Examples of Data Mining Certificates
Stanford University offers an online data mining certificate, one with a focus on massive data sets and the other on applications. These courses are designed for the professional looking to improve and develop their skills. The New Jersey Institute of Technology also offers a Certificate in Data Mining also designed for data analysts that want to specialize in data mining. Boston University Metropolitan College offers a number of certificate programs including one in data mining.
Who Should Pursue the Certificate?
Data mining is the process of turning raw data into useful information. Anyone considering pursuing the certificate should be willing and ready to work with numbers and to have a mathematical mindset. It is also important to understand the different aspects of business and organization in order to understand how data is both taken from all of them and turned into insights that affect all of them.
Typical Prerequisites and Requirements
Most data mining certificates are offered at a graduate level and therefore hold fixed prerequisites of a bachelor’s degree or equivalent proof of skills and experience. However, there are some that are offered at an undergraduate level to be taken independently or alongside a degree program. One example of such a course is offered by Ferris State University and only requires proof of 2.35 high school GPA.
Data Mining Certificate Curriculum
Typical curriculum will include an introduction to the field of data mining, data mining tools, data mining processes and the fundamentals of business management.