Best Data Science Courses In Africa

Data science has emerged as a highly chosen course and field all over the world. This is due to its wide applicability. Data science is a comprehensive mixture of mathematics, algorithms, machine learning techniques, business acumen, and tools. It helps in drawing patterns and insights from a raw piece of data. Significant use of these hidden insights and meaning is found in taking major business decisions. Now let us look at some data science courses.

Components Of Data Science Courses

As a field of study, data science courses involve three major parts; Big data, Machine learning, and business intelligence.

• Machine Learning

Machine Learning aims at making machines capable of adapting to the new and changing environment. It includes algorithms and mathematical tools that help prepare the machines for new advancements. The capability of machine learning is extended to various fields and industries.

Moreover, it is predicted to grow a lot in the coming years. A major use of machine learning is predicting future trends based on past data and patterns. A widespread and renowned example of machine learning is image recognition. It can identify any object in the form of a digital image. Image recognition depends on the pixel intensity in colored and black and white images.

Assigning a name to the face in a photograph, identifying handwriting by differentiating letters into small images, and labeling an X-ray as cancerous or not are some examples of Image recognition.

The application of image recognition is also seen in law enforcement in the form of facial recognition. The system uses the database of facial attributes of several people to recognize similarities and find a subject. Another application of machine learning is time series forecasting.

• Big Data

There is so much data available in the present era. It is produced by various means, including clicks, comments, blogs, articles, images, videos, orders, RSS Feeds, and many more. A common feature of all of them is that they are unstructured. This unstructured data is often referred to as Big Data.

It is possible to convert it into structured form with the help of Big Data tools and techniques. For instance, when you try to track the prices of varied products on an online shopping site, you can access the same products’ data from diverse websites by using Web APIs and RSS Feeds. After that, convert them into a structured form.

• Business Intelligence

Every business needs its data to be organized and analyzed in a sophisticated manner. Owing to the availability of too much data, it requires tools and techniques that can make the data useful. You can make effective decision-making and strategies by carefully analyzing the data.

The data also has to be presented in an understandable way. For that purpose, visual reports such as graphs can work.

Data Science and machine learning course

Data Science and machine learning course by Africa Data School is a learning program that takes place for 12 weeks. It offers courses in Data Science, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Big Data, Natural Language Programming, and Computer Vision.

Masters in Data Science and Big Data

The major area of study in masters in data science and big data is concerned with working on large amounts of data. However, every discipline uses different techniques and purposes. There is also a vast amount of data that is not possible to be processed by traditional database systems. For this type of information, Big Data is used.

There are 5 Vs of Big Data, namely volume, velocity, variety, veracity, and value. Through these Vs you can categorize whether or not a specific data is big data. On the other hand, Data Science courses focus on the analysis of the data and the extraction of helpful insights for specific fields, industries, or individuals.

Along with that, the experts of data scientists work on transforming their results and outcomes in the form of presentations or reports. As these are easy to comprehend and understand by anyone, including the general public and clients.

Masters in Data Science is suitable for all the people who have a keen interest in statistics. This course will help you make useful information out of numbers and personal observations based on past experiences.

The degree is best suited for anyone with an analytical mind and outstanding problem-solving skills. It’s also good to have a great eye for small details while working with big data. These skills enable you to detect even the smallest anomaly and create precise algorithms.

Data Science And Big Data Specialization

The master’s degree will introduce you to the basic problem, scenarios, and skills needed for data science. It will help you to excel in your career as a data scientist. However, if you want to take a step further, you will have to go for a data science specialization course.

This course usually takes 1-2 years to graduate. During this course, you will learn about a specific part of data science and systems rather than the whole system. It helps you to develop skills required for that specific part to a great depth, making you an expert in it. Depending on your choice and preferences, you can become a data engineer, data miner, cloud computing expert, database manager, or data visualizer.

Most large-scale companies employ data specialists to recognize and share data about their data management systems. Being an expert, you have a better chance of finding the insights and helping the organization solve its data management system problems.

Data Science Courses and Skills

Big data is a vast field, and its implementation is increasing with every passing day. If you are interested in data and like to solve problems, big data can help you develop a career out of it.

Here’s a small list of big data and Data science courses in Africa that can help you develop the skills required for big data jobs. Some of them can also help you to learn about a specific aspect of data science at an expert level. You can use them to sharpen your strategy development, mathematical modeling, and information retrieval skills.

Big Data Science Coursework

The big data Science coursework is a degree program started by the University of Pretoria. It is a two-year program during which you will be introduced to different programming languages, data science problems, real-life applications of data science, different data research methods, and more. You will also have a Big Data Science project to provide you with real-life experience with implementing the technology. You can select any topic for your research, and the institute will assign you an expert supervisor to guide you with it.

Also, check out the data science schools in Kenya

Data Scientist Course

The Data Science course is a basic level course in Johannesburg, South Africa. Simplilearn, in collaboration with IBM, developed this course to introduce beginners to the basics of Data Science. During the course, you will ace languages like Python, Tableau, Hadoop, and spark. It has content from some of the masters of the field and can help you to exponentially improve your skills. And you will also get a certification after you complete the course.

EDX Professional Data Science Certification

Harvard University, in collaboration with the EDX e-learning platform, started the professional data science certification for medium-level learners. You learn the basics of the R language that’s used for around 65% of data science tasks. You will also learn about probability and statistical tools.

The course includes 9 parts, and each of them will need 2-8 weeks for completion, depending on your speed. Moreover, it comes with the study material that you can use.And, the course will have some tests that you have to pass before getting a certification.

Conclusion

Data science is an emerging field with a lot of opportunities. Moreover, it can help you to not just start a career in data management but also uplift your current one. Every big company, including tech giants like Google and Amazon, wants people who are experts in data science.

In that regard, if you have good analytical and problem-solving skills, Data science is just the thing for you. Just opt for big data or Data science courses in Africa and get start.