Three professionals complete professional Data Science programs

The first students who enrolled in five various Data Science programs being taught in partnership with the Data Science Council of America (DASCA) have completed their programs.  So far free candidates have successfully completed their course. They are Elias Mutezimana (Senior Big Data Engineer (SBDE™).), Valens Ndagijimana (Associate Big Data Analyst (ABDA™) and Angelique Dukunde (Senior Big Data Analyst (SBDA™).

The five introduced certifications are Associate Big Data Engineer (ABDE™), Senior Big Data Engineer (SBDE™), Associate Big Data Analyst (ABDA™), Senior Big Data Analyst (SBDA™), Senior Data Scientist (SDS™), and Principal Data Scientist (PDS™). These certifications were introduced in 2020 by the African Centre of Excellence in Data Science (ACE-DS) in partnership with the Data Science Council of America (DASCA).

Mutezimana was among the first to be enrolled.  “After hearing about these certifications and going deep into the content, with my experience in Information Technology field, I felt interested hoping that the skills I will gain will boost my skills in both information technology and Data Science fields, thus developing  myself into a world-class data scientist”, Mutezimana said. Mutezimana has a Master’s degree in Data Science (Data Mining) and Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and Information Technology from the former KIST

These online certifications help participants build a strong base of knowledge and skills on multiple tools, techniques, concepts and technologies, and in the process, equip them for an exciting breadth of roles and career opportunities that are available with a wide range of Data Science employers across verticals, environments and markets.

Participants are provided with the complete suite of learning and exam-preparation resources and are linked with data experts if needed.

“With these programs, we are given well prepared resources with simulations, lab environment, e-books, video, physical books to be prepared for this international certification.  Linux Server administration skills, database Administration skills, coding skills were some of the key weapons that accompanied me during the eight - month journey”, he testified.

 Topics that are covered include Big Data Processing Using the Hadoop Ecosystem, Big Data Analytics with Python & Hadoop, Building Data Analytics Applications with R, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, MongoDB for high volume streaming data storage, Spak, kakfa, Scala and flink for Stream & Batch Data Processing & Analytics among others

“The skills I got will expose me to more opportunities for both Information Technology and Data Science as two fields that go hand in hand and also will help me improve my performance in my future career ”, he noted.

The launch of the globally renowned Data Science certifications programs came as a result of partnership between ACE-DS and DASCA to enhance professional employability of African technology talent and improve their technology research and development outcomes. So far 16 candidates are pursuing these certification programs.

The Data Science Council of America (DASCA) is a USA-based institution, which researches, designs, builds platform-independent Data Science knowledge frameworks, standards, and credentials, and certifies individuals entering or working across the spectrum of emerging Data Science professions.