How Online Subscription-Based Learning Can Launch Your Data Science Career
Switching to a data science career or adding new skills are both solid professional moves. You can explore traditional school, but that can take several years. You can put together your own resources from a series of free resources, but there’s no way to prove to employers that you’ve taken the initiative. You could invest in single courses, but what happens when you need new skills afterward? Online subscription-based learning may be the answer.
Online subscription-based learning provides the best of all worlds. Let’s explore how this type of learning can build your data science expertise and help you build innovative skills for a thriving data science career.
What is subscription-based learning?
Instead of purchasing individual courses, subscription-based learning allows you to pay one single, regular fee — typically monthly or yearly — for access to any course or training offered at the site. Gartner predicts that this new type of education model will follow on the heels of the general trend moving towards subscription services; 75% of all customers selling direct to customers will offer some kind of subscription by 2023.
This model provides two very attractive perks:
- Ongoing support: Instead of purchasing one-time courses, a subscription model allows students access to community messaging boards, teacher support, and upgraded courses as new discoveries are made.
- Flexibility: Instead of going tens of thousands of dollars in debt for a traditional education that ends once graduation is over, a subscription allows students to make affordable decisions, receive updates to skills, and hop on and off the education train (so to speak).
Overall, it’s an affordable way to customize your education track and continue to learn as your chosen field changes.
Exploring the subscription model
Once students subscribe to an online subscription-based learning space like Ai+ Training, they’ll have access to several different types of learning.
On-demand courses
Students will have access to courses immediately. On-demand learning allows students to complete course materials whenever is convenient for them. Have a job? Work on courses afterward. Operate better late at night or early in the morning? Arrange learning as necessary.
Access to on-demand courses with subscription-based learning provides an accessible pipeline of materials for an already tech-savvy crowd like data science. Users learn in digestible chunks whenever they want. In addition, on-demand courses offer:
- A low-pressure way to study
- Easy access to content on multiple devices
- Continuous learning, a method that helps retention
- Less intense commitment without sacrificing learning value
Special training
For data science students, special trainings open up knowledge in cutting edge or up and coming areas. These special courses typically feature guest speakers, innovators in the field. These trainings offer:
- Specialized training in brand new disciplines, a critical point of differentiation for data scientists and AI developers.
- The opportunity to connect with and learn from the best in the field.
- A boost to career-specific skills.
With special trainings at Ai+, for example, students can learn highly in-demand skills in brand new fields. Students can also explore past training to help specialize or niche down in a specific area of data science or artificial intelligence.
Subscription learning future-proofs a career
Data science and AI have changed the game across the board. Jobs are changing. Positions will go away, and brand new ones will emerge. An ongoing subscription allows students to make upskilling and reinvention a priority.
A 2019 study from the Brookings Institute cited a need to embrace new technology and automation, but the group also acknowledges that new training must happen to combat unemployment. Technology opens up a job economy modeled around constant change, so a subscription learning model is the best way to prepare.
AI+ offers true career advancement with Subscription-Based Learning
The AI+ online subscription model offers trainings in foundational skills for new career seekers and specialized, niche trainings for advanced students upskilling to a new area of data science. This nonlinear education model provides a modular training option so that learners can have more control over their trainings and the direction of their careers.
These courses boost confidence thanks to project-based learning and expert instruction from some of the best minds in the field. Considering data science is still one of the hottest career fields on the planet, investing in continuous professional development is a no-brainer.
Ai+ can open doors to lucrative and fulfilling data science careers in a number of niches. Whether you’re just getting started or moving to a more specialized area such as AI engineering or DevOps, you have the chance to succeed here. Take our customized skills assessment — Know Your Knowledge Gap — or participate in virtual challenges to win a free pass to ODSC conferences or a year subscription to the learning platform.
Read more data science articles on OpenDataScience.com, including tutorials and guides from beginner to advanced levels! Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here and receive the latest news every Thursday. You can also get data science training on-demand wherever you are with our Ai+ Training platform.
