NCLAB
In NCLab programs, short bite-sized lessons are followed by immediate self-assessment exercises, which ensure that trainees gain experience and confidence with each new concept before moving on. NCLab courses can only accomplish these tasks because they have taken thousands of hours to build and because they are presented through a powerful learn-by-doing platform. In contrast, lecture-based courses are typically built in a few dozen hours.
Looking For A Better Future? Contact an Intake Specialist Now!
Course Catalog
Data Analyst Career Certificate Program - NCLAB
This self-paced online Data Analyst Career Certificate Program provides you a university career certificate and the knowledge, practical experience, competency and confidence to qualify for high-paying data analyst jobs. Data Analysts are professionals who collect, process, and perform analyses on enterprises’ huge quantities of information to help them make better and faster business decisions. Virtually all enterprises now have reached “data overload” and need data analysts to help them make sense of massive amounts of data. According to Indeed Inc., there are currently more than 186,000 data analytics job openings in the United States, and data analysts can earn up to nearly $104,000 annually. This program is suitable for you if you are seeking to enhance your career or looking for a new career in a high-demand occupation. You will learn how to do it all in data analytics: from cleaning data to presenting it in visual form, performing qualitative and quantitative analysis of data, interpreting data and making predictions. This online program utilizes active, self-paced, Learn-By-Doing training. This innovative approach provides bite-sized lessons, requiring you to show you have mastered each concept by completing exercises before moving on to the next module. This competency-based approach builds knowledge as well as practical experience, both of which are needed to qualify for data analyst job openings. This training program takes approximately 360 to 400 hands-on hours. You are assigned a coach who prepares a personalized roadmap and training timeline for you, and then works with you for the entire duration of the training. Because your training is self-paced and individualized to your schedule, you are able to build a consistent training routine with your coach that does not interfere with your work and family commitments. Trainees who successfully complete the program receive a Data Analyst Career Certificate from Idaho State University and walk away with the professional portfolio necessary to demonstrate ability and qualify for job openings. All interested trainees should contact one of our intake specialists prior to enrolling to complete an intake assessment. This interview helps our team of instructors understand your commitment, aspirations, and work habits to ensure your success in the program. Program Prerequisites: You must successfully complete a two-hour online assessment to gain acceptance to this program. Program Components: To begin with, given that Data Analysts work extensively with numbers, you must know some math. If, in consultation with your coach, it is determined that you need a basic middle school level math refresher, our free optional Workplace Math course provides hands-on review and practice to bring you up to speed. After completing this course, you are ready to take the ACT WorkKeys Applied Math exam, which is highly valued by employers. Data Analyst training begins with SQL Fundamentals, where you will learn about data and databases, with emphasis on Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMSs), which are used in virtually all industries and organizations to store data about employees, products, services, inventory, financial transactions, etc. You will learn how a RDBMS works, how to make basic queries, use aggregate functions, create and manage tables, and how to use basic joins. You then take Advanced SQL where you learn more about RDBMSs that tend to be large, complex and messy (they often contain damaged and/or incomplete data). To successfully handle such databases, training continues with this course, which teaches you how to use conditional expressions; work with text, including search-and-replace operations, formulate subqueries and advanced joins; and how to use SQL functions. You continue your Data Analyst training with a comprehensive Data Literacy course, in which you learn all about: Data sources Data types Data relationships Data structures Sorting, filtering and grouping, data and Other fundamental techniques of Data Analytics. You learn basic and advanced spreadsheet operations, including data visualization and analytics, using Google Sheets and Google Data Studio. You learn how to create interactive dashboards and reports. You also learn the fundamentals of data mining, statistical methods, data analysis, and data visualization. Finally, you learn about data governance, quality, and controls. Upon completing this training, you understand how data is acquired, stored, manipulated, analyzed, and used to make better business decisions. This training is followed by a Capstone Project, in which you use all of the skills you’ve acquired and become comfortable with the work environment that you will be in in your first job. The completed project in your resume and your Data Analyst Career Certificate will show potential employers that you have the skills and experience they are looking for. An optional CompTIA Data+ Prep Course prepares you for the CompTIA's Data+ exam, an industry-recognized certification, which adds a significant weight to your resume. You are encouraged to take the exam before starting to work on your Capstone Project. Participation in the program requires a personal computer, high-speed internet access and an email address. The Idaho State University, Continuing Education and Workforce Training Data Analyst Career Certificate is delivered through a partnership with NCLab, an innovative STEM career training provider. Click Data Analyst Career Training Program to learn more.
Data Analytics Mini-Credential - NCLAB
Join the workforce as a fully qualified job-ready Data Analyst, at a time when the demand for qualified Data Analysts far outstrips the supply. Our best-in-class self-paced Data Analytics Mini-Credential Training Program provides you with the knowledge, practical experience, competency, and confidence to qualify for high-paying Data Analyst jobs. All interested trainees should contact one of our intake specialists prior to enrolling to complete an intake assessment. This interview helps our team of instructors understand your commitment, aspirations, and work habits to ensure your success in the program. Acquire a Data Analytics mini-credential and an industry-recognized certification in approximately 160 hands-on hours. Our AI-based teaching platform is at your side throughout your training, helping you in real-time, giving you feedback, and providing you with a feeling of accomplishment. Receive personalized academic advice and instructional support throughout your training. Learn anywhere, anytime; all you need is a computer with an Internet connection. In this training program, you explore fundamental data concepts and then use spreadsheets to enter, organize, modify, and work with data. You: Learn basic and advanced spreadsheet operations and the fundamentals of data mining, statistical methods, data analysis, and data visualization. Learn the importance of data visualization, and how to select the best visualization technique for the data at hand. Expand your knowledge of probability and statistics. Gain practical experience with analyzing data. Learn how to create static and dynamic dashboards to gather information and identify insights into data. Finally, you prepare for the CompTIA Data+ industry-recognized certification exam. You also learn soft skills that include problem solving, attention to detail, critical and logical thinking, perseverance, professional communication, time management, and adaptability that will serve you well throughout your career. Program Prerequisites The only prerequisite for acceptance into this program is successful completion of a two-hour Career Readiness Assessment. The Idaho State University, Continuing Education and Workforce Training SQL Training Mini Credential is delivered through a partnership with NCLab, an innovative STEM career training provider. Click Data Analytics Mini-Credential to learn more.
Python Developer Career Certificate Program - NCLAB
This self-paced online Python Developer Career Certificate Program provides you the knowledge, practical experience, competency and confidence to qualify for high-paying Python programmer jobs. The program is suitable for anyone seeking to enhance their career or looking for a new career in a high-demand occupation. Python development is a rapidly growing field where the demand for qualified candidates far outstrips the supply. Python is the most popular programming language for applications in data analytics, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, business and finance. Indeed Inc., a job placement company, lists more than 87,000 Python programmer job openings in the United States, and many of those jobs are within easy reach, as positions often are remote. Average starting salary for a Python developer is about $80,000, and one can earn as much as $120,000 in a senior role. This online program utilizes active, self-paced, Learn-By-Doing training. This innovative approach provides bite-sized lessons, requiring you to show that you have mastered each concept by completing exercises before moving on to the next module. This competency-based approach builds your knowledge as well as your practical experience, both of which are needed to qualify for most Python developer job openings. This training program takes approximately 230-350 hands-on hours, depending on your existing programming experience at the time you enroll. You are assigned a coach who prepares a personalized roadmap and training timeline for you, and then works with you for the entire duration of the training. Because your training is self-paced and individualized to your schedule, you are able to build a consistent training routine with your coach that does not interfere with your work and family commitments. During your training, you have both a personal instructional support person and a coach who help you every step of the way. These experts also are proactive in reaching out to you at regular intervals to discuss progress and provide assistance. Trainees who successfully complete the program receive a Python Developer Career Certificate from Idaho State University and walk away with the professional portfolio necessary to demonstrate ability and qualify for job openings. All interested trainees should contact an intake specialist prior to enrolling to complete an intake assessment. This interview helps our team of subject experts understand your commitment, aspirations, and work habits to ensure success in the program. Program Prerequisites You must successfully complete a two-hour online assessment to gain acceptance to this program. A programming background shortens the time it takes to complete the training, but is not required. Program Components To begin with, Python is used to solve real-life problems, therefore you must know a limited amount of math. If in consultation with your coach, it is determined that you need a basic middle school level math refresher, our optional Workplace Math course provides hands-on review and practice to bring you up to speed. In small and simple steps, you review how to work with whole and decimal numbers, fractions, percentages, proportions, simple and compound interest, unit conversions, and solve simple workplace-related math problems. This course includes several ACT WorkKeys Applied Math practice exams, and after completing it, you are ready to take the ACT WorkKeys Applied Math exam. This industry-wide certification is highly valued by employers.. With an appropriate math foundation in place, you proceed to Computational Literacy. This course is waived if you have significant prior computer programming experience, but many experienced programmers like to take it anyway, as a refresher. This course teaches computational thinking which is the most important skill in computer programming. Yes, it is more important than the knowledge of the details of a specific programming language. Namely, without computational thinking skills, learning any programming language has little value. In this visual course, you write programs in simplified Python syntax for a virtual robot to solve various tasks. In this way, you learn how to design algorithms and type code, identify repeating patterns, and use loops to repeat commands and sequences of commands. You also learn Boolean logic, conditional statements, conditional loops, how to define custom commands and functions, and how to break complex problems into simpler ones. Finally, you learn how to use recursion and stochastic algorithms (algorithms that involve randomness) to solve tasks that would be very difficult or impossible to solve otherwise. Taking this course puts you in an excellent position to start learning Python. Your actual Python training then begins with Introduction to Python. This course provides a detailed and comprehensive overview of the Python programming language. You learn Python by solving programming problems of gradually increasing complexity, using simple calculations, loops, conditions, local and global variables, functions, exceptions, and recursion. You also become proficient in working with fundamental Python data structures, including tuples, lists, and dictionaries. Throughout the course, you are developing a good Python coding style and other good coding habits. More than 80% of work computers do is processing text. Therefore, in the course Working With Text in Python, you learn how to process, analyze, and manipulate text strings with Python. Python is known for its powerful graphic capabilities. In the course Plotting and Drawing with Python, you learn how to use the powerful Python library Matplotlib for plotting and drawing. At this time, you are ready to embark on Software Project 1, where you build your own Graphics Editor, based on Matplotlib. The Graphics Editor is able to create shapes such as squares, triangles, rectangles and circles, fill objects with color, move, scale and rotate shapes, and combine them to make complex drawings. In addition to substantial programming practice, this Software Project provides you with a valuable insight into the principles of good software design. Most data is stored in files. Therefore, the course Working with Files in Python teaches you how to open files, read data from them, process the data, and write to files. In Software Project 2 you build your own Image Viewer in Python. The Image Viewer is able to read bitmap images from files, store them as 2D Numpy arrays, and visualize them with Matplotlib. In this Software Project you practice working with files, text strings, and the Numpy and Matplotlib libraries. The world we live in is driven by data. Therefore, the course Data Visualization with Python teaches you how to visualize data in the form of simple graphs, bar charts, pie charts, color maps, surface plots, wireframe plots, and contour plots. You also learn how to visualize data on 2D Cartesian grids and unstructured triangulations. Most real-life applications of Python are to some extent related to Data Analytics (DA). Therefore, the DA Minimum course teaches you how to use the Pandas library and perform elementary Data Analytics with Python. Every Python developer must know the basics of Computer Science (CS) including the binary, octal, and hexadecimal numeral systems. These are also required for the PCEP exam. That’s exactly what you learn in the course CS Minimum. The PCEP Prep course includes several PCEP practice exams and prepares you to score high on the PCEP exam. PCEP is an industry-recognized certification from the Python Institute that adds a significant weight to your resume. You are encouraged to take the PCEP exam before starting to work on your Capstone Project. Finally, you complete a Capstone Project where you choose one of two options: Option 1: Look up open source projects on Github, find one that you like, and contribute to it by submitting a pull request. Your contribution must be consulted and approved by your NCLab instructor in advance. Option 2: Implement your own program in Python and upload it to Github. The topic of your program is chosen by you, but must be consulted and approved by your NCLab instructor in advance. Typically, a more substantial program is required compared to Option 1. In both cases you are required to create a free Github user account, and to install a Python IDE on your own computer or laptop (we'll help you with that). Participation in the program requires a personal computer, high-speed internet access and an email address. The Idaho State University, Continuing Education and Workforce Training Python Developer Career Training is delivered through a partnership with NCLab, an innovative STEM career training provider. Click Python Developer Career Certificate Program to learn more.
SQL Training Mini-Credential - NCLAB
As employers look to capitalize on the massive amounts of data they have access to, professionals who can handle data are in high demand. A highly valued skill in this area is SQL, one of the go-to tools for querying, storing, and managing data within relational databases. Developing SQL proficiency opens you up to several career opportunities, as knowledge of databases is critical for data and programming-related jobs. All interested trainees should contact one of our intake specialists prior to enrolling to complete an intake assessment. This interview helps our team of instructors understand your commitment, aspirations, and work habits to ensure your success in the program. Become an SQL subject matter expert in approximately 160 hands-on hours. Our AI-based teaching platform is at your side throughout your training, helping you in real-time, giving you feedback, and providing you with a feeling of accomplishment. Receive personalized academic advice and instructional support throughout your training. Learn anywhere, anytime; all you need is a computer with an Internet connection. Culminate your training with a hands-on capstone project. You also learn soft skills that include problem solving, attention to detail, critical and logical thinking, perseverance, professional communication, time management, and adaptability that will serve you well throughout your career. Program Prerequisites The only prerequisite for acceptance into this program is successful completion of a two-hour Career Readiness Assessment. The Idaho State University, Continuing Education and Workforce Training SQL Training Mini Credential is delivered through a partnership with NCLab, an innovative STEM career training provider. Click SQL Training Mini-Credential to learn more.