Data Science Specialist Course
Coming soon!
One of the most lucrative and in-demand careers available today.

About Our Data Science Specialist Course
For the past decade, Data Science has been consistently regarded as one of the most lucrative and in-demand careers and there has been a growing demand for data scientists. According to Glassdoor, data scientists have been ranked as the “number one job in America” in four of the past five years.
Where does this demand come from? The simple answer to this question lies in the significance of transforming data into profitable knowledge. In other words, data is the lifeblood of any kind of business and data-driven decision-making plays a key role in the success of a company. Our data science specialist course will give teach you how to capitalize on this.
However, the supply of data scientists is low because data science is still relatively a nascent field and consequently there is a noticeable shortage of qualified data scientists. Hence, there is a pressing need to develop career-relevant skills, competence, and experience in data science.
The Data Science Specialist program will prepare students with job-ready skills and knowledge for an entry level data scientist role. Students will learn the foundational principles of data science, participate in hands-on skills-based practices, and acquire the knowledge and practical competence to help industries inform smart decisions.
Students will work with a wide variety of data sources, project scenarios, and data science tools and techniques. The program will offer practical experience with data manipulation, analytics, and visualization techniques. The program will develop the confidence and equip students with the necessary skills and knowledge to begin a career as a data scientist or data analyst.
The completion of the in-class courses is followed by a six-week practicum to gain real-world hands-on experience in data science.

Career Opportunities for Data Science Specialist Course Graduates
This industry-leading program is intended to qualify graduates for careers including:
- Data Scientist
- Data Analyst
- Data Engineer
- Data Architect
- Business Analyst
- Machine Learning Engineer
Prerequisites
Minimum Grade 12 or equivalent Canadian qualification OR relevant experience or mature students
Students from Non-English-speaking countries/territories will have to demonstrate their English proficiency at minimum IELTS Band level 6 .0 OR equivalent (In case of other testing standards). If there is no proof of English proficiency or lower English proficiency level, students will have to take an English course at Focus College.
Students must have access to high-speed internet to access online classes with software like Zoom.
Data Science Specialist Course Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this program, the successful students will have reliably demonstrated the ability to:
- Understand the steps involved in handling a data science problem and applying the methodology to tackle that problem
- Develop student competencies to support their career aspirations,
- demonstrate data cleansing and perform exploratory data analysis
- Apply various data science skills, techniques, and tools to solve real-world problems
- Analyze raw data to transform it into meaningful insights using various data science tools
- Apply various data visualization tools and techniques in Excel, R, Cognos, and Python to visualize data efficiently
- Understand and apply several supervised and unsupervised
- Machine Learning models and algorithms to resolve real-world issues
- Build and evaluate data models using Python
Data Science Specialist Course Details
Study hours: 1,056
Full-time duration: 52 weeks
Homework hours: instructional time of 10-15 hours per week
Attendance Expectations: Students are required to maintain their attendance as per the FC attendance policy.
Homework hours: instructional time of 10-15 hours per week
Delivery methods: in-class, online, or combined
Graduation Requirements
In the Data Science Specialist course, learners will be assessed through both formative and summative methods and a blend of continuous Unit assessment and Graded Unit assessments. Each course (unit) has an assessment which the candidate is required to pass. The allocation of grades awarded are as follows:
Grade A – Student has achieved 70% or above marks
Grade B – Student has achieved marks between 60% and 69%
Grade C – Student has achieved marks between 50% and 59%
F (Fail) – Student has achieved less than 50% marks
The following table shows the titles of the courses in this program in the order they are provided, and the hours of instruction allotted to each course.
Title of Course/Work Experience Component * | Number of Hours* |
Computer Systems Fundamentals | 48 |
Discrete Math for Computing | 48 |
Programming Languages | 48 |
Introduction to Statistics | 48 |
Database Fundamentals | 48 |
Python Programming | 48 |
R Programming | 48 |
Foundations of Data Science | 48 |
Introduction to NoSQL Databases | 48 |
Data Wrangling and Exploration | 48 |
Data Science Methods & Tools | 48 |
Data Analysis | 48 |
Introduction to Machine Learning | 48 |
Big Data Frameworks | 48 |
Data Visualization | 48 |
Communication Skills | 48 |
Career Development Planning | 48 |
Practicum: Full-time (Six Weeks) | 240 |
Personally my studies at Focus College had taught me to always think independently and use knowledge I’ve gained in my future professional career.
I had a great time at the course and it was very helpful and fun as well.
I am thankful for the faculty that helped me gain that knowledge and has brought a new dimension into my life.