Career advice

Become a Data Scientist

As a data scientist, you’ll analyse raw data to form insights and solve problems like creating products or updating software. Get the key skills and qualifications now by taking online data science courses from top UK universities and institutions.

  • Best jobs in the UK #6
  • Job satisfaction 4.2 / 5
  • Median base salary £45,000
  • UK job openings/month 1,724
Source: Glassdoor's Best Jobs (2020)

What skills do you need to become a data scientist?

  • Analytical skills

    Data scientists know what data is and isn’t useful, using their insights to solve wider business problems such as conversion and customer retention using the trends they find.

  • Programming languages

    Whether you’re a data scientist, analyst or working in infrastructure, you’ll need an understanding of the industry’s basic programming languages, and how to use frameworks such as Hadoop.

  • Maths & statistics

    A background in mathematics and stats is vital, especially when building or managing databases. It’ll also help with data modelling, the process of knowing which data requirements a business needs for its problems.

  • Presentation & communication

    Professional data scientists are adept at presenting their findings to the rest of their teams. You’ll need to know the best ways to visualise and communicate insights in formats that every team can use.

Develop these skills. Take an online data science course

The University of Sheffield

Making Sense of Data in the Media

4.6 (22 reviews)

Discover how to read and understand data in the media, and how to spot fake news based on misleading statistics.

3 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

Find out more
The University of Waikato

Data Mining with Weka

4.8 (30 reviews)

Discover practical data mining and learn to mine your own data using the popular Weka workbench.

5 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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The University of Waikato

Advanced Data Mining with Weka

Learn how to use popular packages that extend Weka's functionality and areas of application. Use them to mine your own data!

5 weeks

4 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Purdue University & The Center for Science of Information

Introduction to R for Data Science

4.6 (22 reviews)

Discover big data: work with airline data to learn the fundamentals of the R platform.

4 weeks

4 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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University of Reading & Institute for Environmental Analytics

Big Data and the Environment

4.3 (16 reviews)

From sources such as satellites, sensors and social media, how can environmental data analytics benefit business and research?

3 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Eindhoven University of Technology

Introduction to Process Mining with ProM

Learn how to use the free, open source process mining framework (ProM) to analyse, visualise, and improve processes based on data.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Browse more courses in Science, Engineering & Maths and IT & Computer Science

What do people say about these data science courses?

Excellent course, being a data scientist for a number of years it gave me insight into manipulating large sets of data and as I am taking other courses related to data visualization I am looking forward to new technologies. Thanks!

Goran Papic
Learner on Learn to Code for Data Analysis

A great introduction to forecasting. The training and validation periods were a bit of an eye-opener. Thank you for putting this course online.

Jonty Pearce
Learner on Business Analytics Using Forecasting

The benefits of taking data science courses online

Learn flexibly online, for free

Develop valuable skills with a short, online data science course. Start learning for free, on desktop, tablet or mobile.

Upgrade or buy Unlimited for extra benefits

Upgrade your course for ongoing access to the course content, tests, and the chance to gain a Certificate of Achievement. Buy Unlimited for access to hundreds of short courses in a year and the ability to keep access to courses you gain a certificate on.

Meet development experts

Learn with experts from top universities and business schools. Network with data scientists all over the world.