Data · career guide

Data Scientist

Statistics, machine learning and the storytelling that turns analysis into decisions executives pay for.

Median salary $132,000 · 44-week programme · from $105/week

What you'll learn

The skills this track builds

Every one of these appears in real job descriptions for this field.

Python programming

Used by: ML Engineer, Data Engineer, Data Scientist, Penetration Tester

Statistics & probability

Used by: Data Scientist, ML Engineer

Machine-learning modelling

Used by: ML Engineer, Data Scientist

Data visualisation & storytelling

Used by: Data Scientist, Data Engineer

Feature engineering & data cleaning

Used by: Data Scientist, ML Engineer, Data Engineer

SQL & databases

Used by: Data Engineer, Data Scientist, ML Engineer

LLMs, RAG & generative AI

Used by: ML Engineer, Data Scientist, AI Security Engineer

MLOps & model deployment

Used by: ML Engineer, Data Scientist

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP)

Used by: Solutions Architect, Data Engineer, DevOps/SRE, Cloud Security Architect

Collaboration & communication

Used by: All roles

The year

Phase 1

Foundations (wks 1–10): Python, statistics and probability, SQL at production depth.

Phase 2

Analysis & modelling (wks 11–24): exploratory analysis, inference, classical machine learning on real business data.

Phase 3

Advanced practice (wks 25–34): experimentation and A/B testing, causal inference, models in production, executive storytelling.

Phase 4

Capstone & placement (wks 35–44): a business-grade capstone, certification exams, interview phase.

Certification preparation: AWS Machine Learning Specialty · Databricks ML Associate.

Data

Statistics, machine learning and the storytelling that turns analysis into decisions executives pay for.