Top 10 Courses & Specializations for 2024

According to one of the report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), technology skills will be in high demand across industries. In particular, skills related to data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing will be sought-after in the years to come, along with business and soft skills such as analytical thinking and creativity. With this in mind, Coursera has curated a list of courses to help learners stay professionally competitive in 2024 and beyond. Coursera remains steadfast in its commitment to delivering exceptional education and training to empower individuals in achieving their professional and personal objectives.

Check out the below curated list of the top 10 courses and Specializations that have garnered significant demand and received commendations from both students and industry experts. These programs are meticulously designed to impart the latest skills and knowledge in high-demand sectors, laying a robust foundation for career advancement. & start learning today.

#1.Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate 

Get professional training designed by Google and prepare for a new career in the high-growth field of data analytics, no experience required.

Data analytics is the collection, transformation, and organization of data in order to draw conclusions, make predictions, and drive informed decision making.

Over 8 courses, gain in-demand skills that prepare you for an entry-level job. You’ll learn from Google employees whose foundations in data analytics served as launchpads for their own careers. At under 10 hours per week, you can complete the certificate in less than 6 months.

You’ll prepare yourself for jobs that include junior or associate data analyst, database administrator, and more.

Applied Learning Project

This program includes over 180 hours of instruction and hundreds of practice-based assessments, which will help you simulate real-world data analytics scenarios that are critical for success in the workplace. The content is highly interactive and exclusively developed by Google employees with decades of experience in data analytics. Through a mix of videos, assessments, and hands-on labs, you’ll get introduced to analysis tools and platforms and key analytical skills required for an entry-level job.

Skills you’ll gain will include: Data cleaning, problem solving, critical thinking, data ethics, and data visualization

Platforms and tools you will learn include: Presentations, Spreadsheets, SQL, Tableau and R Programming

In addition to expert training and hands-on projects, you’ll complete a case study that you can share with potential employers to showcase your new skill set. Learn concrete skills that top employers are hiring for right now.

In this course, you will learn:

• Gain an immersive understanding of the practices and processes used by a junior or associate data analyst in their day-to-day job

• Learn key analytical skills (data cleaning, analysis, & visualization) and tools (spreadsheets, SQL, R programming, Tableau)

• Understand how to clean and organize data for analysis, and complete analysis and calculations using spreadsheets, SQL and R programming

• Learn how to visualize and present data findings in dashboards, presentations and commonly used visualization platforms

#2.Google Business Intelligence Professional Certificate

Get professional training designed by Google and take the next step in your career with advanced skills in the high-growth field of business intelligence. There are over 166,000 open jobs in business intelligence and the median salary for entry-level roles is $96,000.¹

Business intelligence professionals collect, organize, interpret, and report on data to help organizations make informed business decisions. Some responsibilities include measuring performance, tracking revenue or spending, and monitoring progress.

This certificate builds on your data analytics skills and experience to take your career to the next level. It’s designed for graduates of the Google Data Analytics Certificate or people with equivalent data analytics experience. Expand your knowledge with practical, hands-on projects, featuring BigQuery, SQL, and Tableau.

After three courses, you’ll be prepared for jobs like business intelligence analyst, business intelligence engineer, business intelligence developer, and more. At under 10 hours a week, the certificate program can be completed in less than two months. Upon completion, you can apply for jobs with Google and over 150 U.S. employers, including Deloitte, Target, and Verizon.

Applied Learning Project

This program includes over 70 hours of instruction and 50+ practice-based assessments, which will help you simulate real-world business intelligence scenarios that are critical for success in the workplace. The content is highly interactive and exclusively developed by Google employees with decades of experience in business intelligence. Through a mix of videos, assessments, and hands-on labs, you’ll get introduced to BI tools and platforms and key technical skills required for an entry-level job.

Platforms and tools you will learn include: BigQuery, SQL, Tableau

In addition to expert training and hands-on projects, you’ll complete a portfolio project that you can share with potential employers to showcase your new skill set.

#3.Google Project Management: Professional Certificate

Prepare for a new career in the high-growth field of project management, no experience required. Get professional training designed by Google and get on the fastrack to a competitively paid job.

Project managers are natural problem-solvers. They set the plan and guide teammates, and manage changes, risks, and stakeholders.

Over 6 courses, gain in-demand skills that will prepare you for an entry-level job. Learn from Google employees whose foundations in project management served as launchpads for their own careers. At under 10 hours per week, you can complete in less than six months.

This program qualifies you for over 100 hours of project management education, which helps prepare you for Project Management Institute Certifications like the globally-recognized Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®.

Applied Learning Project

This program includes over 140 hours of instruction and hundreds of practice-based assessments which will help you simulate real-world project management scenarios that are critical for success in the workplace.

The content is highly interactive and exclusively developed by Google employees with decades of experience in program and project management.

Skills you’ll gain will include: Creating risk management plans; Understanding process improvement techniques; Managing escalations, team dynamics, and stakeholders; Creating budgets and navigating procurement; Utilizing project management software, tools, and templates; Practicing Agile project management, with an emphasis on Scrum.

Through a mix of videos, assessments, and hands-on activities, you’ll get introduced to initiating, planning, and running both traditional and Agile projects. You’ll develop a toolbox to demonstrate your understanding of key project management elements, including managing a schedule, budget, and team.

#4.Google IT Support Professional Certificate

Prepare for a career in the high-growth field of IT, no experience required. Get professional training designed by Google and get on the fast-track to a competitively paid job.

Over 5 courses, learn in-demand skills that prepare you for an entry-level job. At under 10 hours per week, you can complete the certificate in less than 6 months.

Since the IT Support Certificate launched in 2018, 82% of graduates have reported a positive career outcome like a new job, promotion, or raise within 6 months.

Applied Learning Project

This program includes over 100 hours of instruction and hundreds of practice-based assessments, which will help you simulate real-world IT support scenarios that are critical for success in the workplace.

The content is highly interactive and exclusively developed by Google employees with decades of experience in IT.

Through a mix of videos, assessments, and hands-on labs, you’ll be introduced to troubleshooting, customer service, networking, operating systems, and security — foundational IT skills required for an entry-level job.

Your skills will include: Network protocols, cloud computing, Windows operating system, Linux command line, systems administration, encryption algorithms and techniques, and more.

#5.Google UX Design Professional Certificate

Prepare for a career in the high-growth field of UX design, no experience required. With professional training designed by Google, get on the fast-track to a competitively paid job.

User experience (UX) designers focus on the interaction that users have with products, like websites, apps, and physical objects. They make those everyday interactions useful, enjoyable, and accessible.

Over 7 courses, gain in-demand skills that will prepare you for an entry-level job. At under 10 hours per week, you can complete the certificate in less than 6 months.

You will create designs on paper and in digital design tools like Figma and Adobe XD. By the end of the certificate program, you will have a professional UX portfolio that includes three end-to-end projects, so that you’re ready to apply for jobs.

Applied Learning Project

This program includes over 200 hours of instruction and hundreds of practice-based activities and assessments that simulate real-world UX design scenarios and are critical for success in the workplace. The content is highly interactive and developed by Google employees with decades of experience in UX design.

You’ll learn how to complete the design process from beginning to end, including: Empathizing with users; Defining user pain points; Coming up with ideas for design solutions; Creating wireframes, mockups, and prototypes; Testing designs through usability studies; Iterating on designs based on feedback.

Through a mix of videos, readings, assessments, and hands-on activities, you’ll learn in-demand design tools like Figma. You’ll even create a portfolio that includes three projects to share with potential employers to showcase the skills you learned in this program.

#6.Machine Learning Specialization

The Machine Learning Specialization is a foundational online program created in collaboration between DeepLearning.AI and Stanford Online. This beginner-friendly program will teach you the fundamentals of machine learning and how to use these techniques to build real-world AI applications.

This Specialization is taught by Andrew Ng, an AI visionary who has led critical research at Stanford University and groundbreaking work at Google Brain, Baidu, and Landing.AI to advance the AI field.

This 3-course Specialization is an updated version of Andrew’s pioneering Machine Learning course, rated 4.9 out of 5 and taken by over 4.8 million learners since it launched in 2012.

It provides a broad introduction to modern machine learning, including supervised learning (multiple linear regression, logistic regression, neural networks, and decision trees), unsupervised learning (clustering, dimensionality reduction, recommender systems), and some of the best practices used in Silicon Valley for artificial intelligence and machine learning innovation (evaluating and tuning models, taking a data-centric approach to improving performance, and more.)

By the end of this Specialization, you will have mastered key concepts and gained the practical know-how to quickly and powerfully apply machine learning to challenging real-world problems. If you’re looking to break into AI or build a career in machine learning, the new Machine Learning Specialization is the best place to start.

Applied Learning Project

By the end of this Specialization, you will be ready to:

• Build machine learning models in Python using popular machine learning libraries NumPy and scikit-learn.

• Build and train supervised machine learning models for prediction and binary classification tasks, including linear regression and logistic regression.

• Build and train a neural network with TensorFlow to perform multi-class classification.

• Apply best practices for machine learning development so that your models generalize to data and tasks in the real world.

• Build and use decision trees and tree ensemble methods, including random forests and boosted trees.

• Use unsupervised learning techniques for unsupervised learning: including clustering and anomaly detection.

• Build recommender systems with a collaborative filtering approach and a content-based deep learning method.

• Build a deep reinforcement learning model.

#7.Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate

Prepare for a new career in the high-growth fields of digital marketing and e-commerce, in under six months, no experience or degree required. Businesses need digital marketing and e-commerce talent more than ever before; 86% of business leaders report that digital commerce will be the most important route to growth. There are over 213,000 open jobs in digital marketing and e-commerce with a median entry-level salary of $59,000.¹

Throughout this program, you will gain in-demand skills that prepare you for an entry-level job and learn how to use tools and platforms like Canva, Constant Contact, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Hootsuite, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Shopify, and Twitter. You will learn from subject-matter experts at Google and have a chance to build your own portfolio with projects like customer personas and social media calendars to show to potential employers.

75% of certificate graduates report a positive career outcome (e.g., new job, promotion, or raise) within six months of completion

Applied Learning Project

This program includes over 190 hours of instruction and practice-based assessments, which simulate real-world digital marketing and e-commerce scenarios that are critical for success in the workplace. The content is highly interactive and developed by Google employees with experience in the field.

Skills you’ll gain will include: Developing digital marketing and e-commerce strategies; attracting and engaging customers through digital marketing channels like search and email; measuring marketing analytics and sharing insights; building e-commerce stores, analyzing e-commerce performance, and building customer loyalty.

Platforms and tools you will learn include: Canva, Constant Contact, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Hootsuite, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Shopify, and Twitter

Through a mix of videos, assessments, and hands-on activities, you’ll learn how to use popular tools and platforms required for an entry-level job. Learn concrete skills that top employers are hiring for right now.

#8.The Science of Well-Being from Yale university

In this course you will engage in a series of challenges designed to increase your own happiness and build more productive habits. As preparation for these tasks, Professor Laurie Santos reveals misconceptions about happiness, annoying features of the mind that lead us to think the way we do, and the research that can help us change. You will ultimately be prepared to successfully incorporate a specific wellness activity into your life.

#9.IBM Data Science Professional Certificate

Prepare for a career in the high-growth field of data science. In this program, you’ll develop the skills, tools, and portfolio to have a competitive edge in the job market as an entry-level data scientist in as little as 5 months. No prior knowledge of computer science or programming languages is required.

Data science involves gathering, cleaning, organizing, and analyzing data with the goal of extracting helpful insights and predicting expected outcomes. The demand for skilled data scientists who can use data to tell compelling stories to inform business decisions has never been greater.

You’ll learn in-demand skills used by professional data scientists including databases, data visualization, statistical analysis, predictive modeling, machine learning algorithms, and data mining. You’ll also work with the latest languages, tools,and libraries including Python, SQL, Jupyter notebooks, Github, Rstudio, Pandas, Numpy, ScikitLearn, Matplotlib, and more.

Upon completing the full program, you will have built a portfolio of data science projects to provide you with the confidence to excel in your interviews. You will also receive access to join IBM’s Talent Network where you’ll see job opportunities as soon as they are posted, recommendations matched to your skills and interests, and tips and tricks to help you stand apart from the crowd.

This program is ACE® and FIBAA recommended —when you complete, you can earn up to 12 college credits and 6 ECTS credits.

Applied Learning Project

This Professional Certificate has a strong emphasis on applied learning and includes a series of hands-on labs in the IBM Cloud that give you practical skills with applicability to real jobs.

Tools you’ll use: Jupyter / JupyterLab, GitHub, R Studio, and Watson Studio

Libraries you’ll use: Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib, Seaborn, Folium, ipython-sql, Scikit-learn, ScipPy, etc.

Projects you’ll complete:

• Extract and graph financial data with the Pandas Python library

• Use SQL to query census, crime, and school demographic data sets

• Wrangle data, graph plots, and create regression models to predict housing prices with data science Python libraries

• Create a dynamic Python dashboard to monitor, report, and improve US domestic flight reliability

• Apply and compare machine learning classification algorithms to predict whether a loan case will be paid off or not

• Train and compare machine learning models to predict if a space launch can reuse the first stage of a rocket

#10.Prompt Engineering Specialization from Vanderbilt University

Learn to augment and amplify your human creativity and critical thinking with Generative AI. By the end of the course, you will be able to use Generative AI as an exoskeleton for your mind. In this hands-on specialization, you will learn how to tap into the emerging capabilities of large language models to automate tasks, increase productivity, and augment human intelligence. Through a series of practical courses, you will gain skills to apply these tools in your work, education, and daily life.

The specialization provides starts at the beginning with fundamental knowledge and moves to advanced skills for prompt engineering – the art of crafting instructions for large language models. You will start from basics and by the end, be capable of leveraging these models’ reasoning abilities for a wide range of automation and intelligence augmentation applications. By the end of the specialization, you will be able to use prompts and conversations with ChatGPT to accomplish amazing feats such as:

• writing and outlining 10X faster

• brainstorming new ways of solving problems

• planning complex events, trips, processes, etc.

• automatically generating PowerPoint presentations and visualizations from Excel data

• extracting key information from PDFs and documents

• producing marketing content from transcripts and videos or that are personalized for specific customers

Applied Learning Project

Learners will do everything from tapping into emergent reasoning capabilities using personas to producing social media posts with Generative AI. Each course includes multiple hands-on prompt engineering exercises that will incrementally build your prompt engineering skills.

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