Data Warehousing Specialists

High School

In high school, take as many computer science classes as possible—especially those in programming and database management. Other recommended courses include mathematics, statistics, science, history, social studies, English, and speech.

Postsecondary Education

Data warehousing specialists need a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in management information systems, database management, computer science, data science, or another computer-related field. Large companies may require applicants to have a master’s degree in one of these aforementioned fields.

Certification

Undergraduate and graduate certificates in data science, business intelligence, and related fields are available at colleges and universities. For example, Harvard University awards a certificate in data science. Classes in its Data Science program include: R Basics; Visualization; Probability; Inference and Modeling; Productivity Tools; Wrangling; Linear Regression; and Machine Learning. Georgetown University, Syracuse University, Indiana University at Bloomington, University of Louisville, and other colleges and universities offer similar programs.

The University of California, Irvine's Division of Continuing Education offers a certificate in business intelligence and data warehousing. Required courses include Business Intelligence and The Data Warehouse Development Process; Data Integration, Modeling, and ETL; and Introduction to SQL Programming. Visit https://ce.uci.edu/programs/technology/business-intelligence-data-warehousing to learn more.

Other Education or Training

Participating in continuing education (CE) classes is a great way to keep your skills up to date and learn about new developments in data warehousing and science; CE credits may also be required to renew one’s certification. Many professional associations (e.g., Association for Computing Machinery, DAMA International, TDWI, IEEE Computer Society) provide CE classes, workshops, and webinars that will be useful to data warehousing specialists. For example, the Association for Computing Machinery offers online courses on topics such as Big Data, data warehousing, database design, SAS, SQL, business intelligence, data management, and data mining. For-profit and nonprofit schools (e.g., Global Knowledge Training LLC, Coursera, edX, and Udacity) and information technology companies (such as IBM) also offer CE opportunities.