During August, Coursera is offering a discount of 25% off the first month of some of its beginner-level Professional Certificates that could help you embark on a new career. 

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Credentials such as Coursera's Professional Certificates are becoming widely recognized by employers and recruiters. Being completely online you can study whenever and wherever you find it convenient and go at your own pace. At the same time as learning you also gain hand-on practice of the skills that companies are looking for. 

The programs included in this offer from Coursera are at beginner-level and have no specific prerequisites. Four of them come from IBM and we've previously reported on the earlier incarnations of both IBM Applied AI Professional Certificate and IBM Data Science Professional Certificate.

Now, however, thousands of students have completed these programs and in the case of IBM Data Science, which has a rating of 4.6 (out of 5) based on 48,196 ratings, 39% of learners started a new career after completing the program and a further 17% were awarded a pay increase or promotion. 

The rubric for this professional certificate states:

Data science is one of the hottest professions of the decade, and the demand for data scientists who can analyze data and communicate results to inform data driven decisions has never been greater. This Professional Certificate from IBM will help anyone interested in pursuing a career in data science or machine learning develop career-relevant skills and experience.

The program now comprises 10 courses, a total of around 150 hours of effort:

1. What is Data Science? 12 hrs
2. Tools for Data Science 16 hrs
3. Data Science Methodology 7hrs
4. Python for Data Science and AI & Development 11hrs
5. Python Project for Data Science 6 hrs
6. Databases and SQL for Data Science 12 hrs
7. Data Analysis with Python 10 hrs
8. Data Visualization with Python 9hrs
9. Machine Learning with Python 21 hrs
10. Applied Data Science Capstone 10 hrs

For those who are interested in a career as a data analyst Coursera is also promoting the IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate, a program that lets learners:

Power your data analyst career by learning the core principles of data analysis and gaining hands-on skills practice. You’ll work with a variety of data sources, project scenarios, and data analysis tools, including Excel, SQL, Python, Jupyter Notebooks, and Cognos Analytics, gaining practical experience with data manipulation and applying analytical techniques.

It comprises 9 courses, five of which are in common with Data Science program - see 4-8 in the list above. It starts with:

1. Introduction to Data Analytics 12 hrs
2. Excel Basics for for Data Analysis 12 hrs
3. Data Visualization and Dashboards with Excel and Cognos 9 hrs

and rounds out with the IBM Data Analyst Capstone Project requiring 13 hrs to complete.

IBM Applied AI Professional Certificate is intended to give learners:

a firm understanding of AI technology, its applications, and its use cases. You will become familiar with concepts and tools like machine learning, data science, natural language processing, image classification, image processing, IBM Watson AI services, OpenCV, and APIs.

It comprises 6 courses, including the Python course shared by the IBM data-related certificates. 

1. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
2. Getting Started with AI using IBM Watson
3. Building AI Powered Chatbots Without Programming
4. Python for Data Science and AI & Development 11hrs
5. Python Project for AI & Application development 4 hrs
6. Building AI Applications with Watson APIs

Cybersecurity is another area in which demand exceeds supply and the 8-course IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate is intended to give learners the technical skills to become job-ready for a Cybersecurity Analyst role. Instructional content and labs will introduce you to concepts including network security, endpoint protection, incident response, threat intelligence, penetration testing, and vulnerability assessment.

The final professional certificate in this promotion is Facebook Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate developed by digital marketing experts at Aptly together with Facebook marketers. It consists of six courses, the last of which is a capstone and requires a total of  around 70 hour of effort.

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