The four parts of the work
Collecting: finding where the numbers live, which is usually several places at once, and pulling them together. Cleaning: fixing the blanks, the duplicates and the dates typed three different ways, which is the part nobody talks about and the part that takes the longest. Analysing: sorting, filtering, grouping and comparing until a pattern shows or does not. Sharing: turning that into a chart or a short report that a manager reads in two minutes.
A spreadsheet handles a surprising amount of this. SQL is the language for asking a database a question. Tableau and Power BI draw the charts. R and Python do the heavier work once the data is too big for a spreadsheet to be comfortable.
The map Google uses
The Google Data Analytics certificate is built as eight courses, and reading their titles in order is a fair description of the job:
- 01 Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere
- 02 Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions
- 03 Prepare Data for Exploration
- 04 Process Data from Dirty to Clean
- 05 Analyze Data to Answer Questions
- 06 Share Data Through the Art of Visualization
- 07 Data Analysis with R Programming
- 08 Google Data Analytics Capstone: Complete a Case Study
Who the work suits
People who like a tidy answer and do not mind the untidy hour it takes to get there. You do not need a mathematics background to start; you need to be comfortable with a spreadsheet and willing to learn one new tool at a time. Google's own description of the certificate says it prepares people for introductory-level roles, and that is the honest place to start.
How we teach it
Data analytics is one of the free programs at 2095 Weston Rd, Unit 210, Toronto. It runs at beginner level, and you do not need to have studied any of it before. Training is offered in multiple languages. The way in is a free 30-minute session, booked online or by calling (416) 727-6836.