Australia's best online courses in data analytics open up exciting career opportunities in this growth field.
An online course in data analytics prepares you for a career converting data into useful information for making decisions. Data analysts operate at the intersection between technology, statistics and business. They bring a set of strategic and technical competencies together to extract value from data.
You can do a bachelor degree online or a postgraduate course such as a graduate certificate or masters. Here are 12 of Australia's best data analytics courses.
You can major in data analytics or data science in an online bachelor degree. Typically, a data major is available within computer science or IT undergraduate programs.
A bachelor course will teach you important core skills and set up your career. Almost every analyst and data scientist around has a bachelor degree of some kind, usually in a technology field.
Most programs are flexible and allow you to adjust your study direction from year to year. You can also combine disciplines. Students often complement data analytics or data science with business or maths studies… READ MORE
An important and growing way of using data is to produce artificial intelligence or AI. You can learn the fundamentals of harnessing the potential of AI with a Graduate Certificate in Artificial Intelligence Management.
Knowing when and how to solve a business problem using AI starts with understanding data analytics. You can then deploy machine learning to generate artificial intelligence.
A graduate certificate course could provide early mover advantages for managers with technical aptitude. You'll be able to grasp AI opportunities that competitors may overlook or struggle to implement... READ MORE
The application of data analytics to business problems is a key learning goal when you do a business analytics course, such as a Graduate Certificate in Business Analytics.
Online business analytics courses are popular among professionals with backgrounds in business, technology, engineering and science. A 4-subject Graduate Certificate in Business Analytics takes 8 months of online study that you can do while working full-time.
By choosing the right electives, you can design a course to match your career ambitions. Students learn data analytics skills as well as business strategy… READ MORE
A Graduate Certificate in Data Analytics is a 4-subject course providing (a) foundation studies in data analytics (b) advanced training in chosen subjects or (c) a combination of introductory and advanced units.
Students often enrol in a grad cert course to gain entry into a masters program. They might continue beyond the course, to go for an 8-subject graduate diploma or 12-subject masters, if the learning experience is a good one.
A data analyst course may be open to graduates (any bachelor degree) or professionals with relevant experience. You need strong math ability to do well… READ MORE
A graduate certificate in data science is a 4-subject course normally embedded within a masters program. It introduces foundational topics and may contain units that are prerequisites for advanced studies.
A grad cert in data science is often a pathway course. Significant further training, either within the masters program or outside, should follow to develop the advanced programming skills that data science requires.
To be admitted, you need a relevant technology or business degree or, alternatively, professional experience as a data analyst or data scientist… READ MORE
Halfway in duration between a graduate certificate and masters, an online Graduate Diploma in Analytics may be just the right course for you. Consisting of 8 subjects, you can finish a graduate diploma over 16 months of part-time study.
An advantage of a Graduate Diploma in Analytics is that you can take a deep dive exclusively into the topics that interest you. Skip those subjects from the masters program that you feel carry least value for you.
An "Analytics" program allows you to specialise in data analytics, business analytics or a combination of these overlapping disciplines… READ MORE
A cool late-stage application of data analytics is to produce artificial intelligence or AI. You can learn when and how to generate AI with a Masters in AI Management program.
An AI management program is a technology course with low to moderate technical content. You should have analytics aptitude and be willing to dive into technical content as required. But, ultimately, you're developing an ability to initiate and manage AI projects.
You can study other topics as part of the program, including foundational units on data analytics and machine learning... READ MORE
A masters degree in analytics allows you to develop the breadth of skills required to excel as a data analyst.
Job opportunities in the data analytics field vary greatly in terms of the technical and business skills that are called upon. An online masters course is a great way to extend your capabilities and always be in high demand.
Masters degrees go by different titles, including Master of Analytics, Master of Business Analytics, and Master of Data Analytics. Most programs are 12 subjects long but also allow you to start (and potentially finish) with a 4-subject graduate certificate course… READ MORE
A Masters in Business Analytics is a data analytics program that you can expect to be free of the heavy programming you might find in a data science course. As well, there should be plenty of opportunity to learn how to apply data analytics to decision-making in business.
Examples of subjects in a business analytics masters are accounting practice and tools, delivering customer value, machine learning, data processing, and financial analytics.
Demand for business analysts is high across Australian industries, with companies wanting to exploit burgeoning volumes of commercial data… READ MORE
An online masters degree in data science is a powerful way to start or boost a career in the boom field of big data. Students gain better foundation training than the majority of current data scientists.
Career opportunities abound for people with the maths and coding talent to generate business value from information assets.
An IT background is highly advantageous for postgraduate courses. Students can do a masters (12+ units), graduate diploma (8 units) or graduate certificate (4 units)… READ MORE
Marketing is fertile field for data analytics. You can apply data analytics to help find potential customers, quantify the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, adapt your messaging based on customer responses, and so forth.
With marketing being a vital business function, demand is high for marketing analytics professionals. You can develop and demonstrate your skills with a Masters in Marketing Analytics.
To specialise in marketing analytics, you study topics such as customer analytics, social media and digital analytics alongside generic data analytics subjects… READ MORE
One of the least technical master's degrees in the field is an MBA in Data Analytics. The course develops your management and leadership skills while imparting knowledge for working with data analytics.
Managers need data analysis skills if for no other reason than to better interpret analytics presented to them. But there is also the potential to commission, lead or supervise data analytics projects.
A Data Analytics MBA is highly relevant to many careers in business given the growing significance of analytics in decision making... READ MORE
What You'll Study (Course Structure)
A data analytics course may cover core topics such as data handling, analysis techniques, visualisation and communication. Aside from that, course structure tends to vary depending on whether data science and programming are emphasised or business analytics.
Course duration is 16 subjects (including electives) for a bachelor degree, 12 typically for a masters and 4 for a graduate certificate. Here are example subject lists.
Bachelor of Data Analytics
- Introductory Data Science
- Ethics and Data Management
- Data Analytics
- Mathematics for Data Science
- Visual Basic and Excel Programming
- Data Handling and Visualisation
- Statistical Inference & Machine Learning
- Advanced Data Analysis
Master of Analytics
- Principles of Programming
- Introductory Data Analysis
- Analytics and Business
- Managing People, Analytics and Change
- Big Data Management
- Data Visualisation and Communication
- Predictive Analytics
- Data and Ethics
Career Opportunities
Graduates of data analytics university courses are often employed as data analysts, including junior and senior roles. Related jobs are business analyst, business intelligence analyst and data scientist. Here are job ad summaries to give you a flavour of the career opportunities.
Snippets from jobs ads. Random sample. Positions may be closed.
Analytics Officer – QLD Crime and Corruption
For this role for the CCC, you should demonstrate (a) data analytics knowledge and experience in developing business intelligence services (b) an ability to adapt to new and emerging data analytics concepts, use cases and technology (c) an ability to acquire, cleanse, merge, model and analyse disparate datasets using a range of applications and (d) an ability to create data visualisations and dashboards.
Data Analyst – National Storage
Our Data Analyst is a newly created role based at our corporate office in Brisbane, which has been created as apart of our IT transformation project. Reporting into the GM of Technology, you will be our data custodian for our critical business data, enabling innovative new business intelligence. You will own and drive continuous improvement through process optimisation and technology improvements.
Business Intelligence Analyst – Collabera Australia
Expert-level SQL and/or SAS Skills with a minimum of 6 or more years in the Business Intelligence/Data arena. Certifications in SAS or SQL development will be well regarded. Experience in working with raw data and drawing compelling and actionable insights. Experience in SAS Viya, Tableau, Qlikview or similar will be well regarded.
Graduate Program – Accenture
Successful candidates will: (a) have a passion for change and technology (b) be a student in their final year at university or have graduated within the last two years and (c) have experimented with programming and are keen to learn. It’s a plus if an applicant is (a) a passionate coder or developer with full stack skills (b) confident in multiple coding languages and keen to learn more (c) skilled in data analysis and visualisation and (d) interested in automating and optimising.
EL1 Data Analyst – AIHW
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has an opening for a Data Analyst to lead aspects of its work program and contribute to other analytical activities. You will be responsible for managing the National Aged Care Data Clearinghouse (NACDC) team, which involves providing high quality customised data requests (including extracts for data linkage purposes) to internal and external clients, the continuous improvement of NACDC infrastructure and processes, and high-level stakeholder management.
Data Analyst – Victorian Department of Health
Maintain and develop data sets and undertake reporting and analysis to support the COVID-19 testing and vaccination system. The role is to collate, maintain and analyse data using standard tools (e.g. Excel, PowerBI and SQL) and ensure the delivery of timely, accurate and high-quality data products and reports. High levels of communication, coordination, analytical and technical skills required.
Junior Data Analyst – Strategic Partners
We are looking for data analysts to work in a complex and technically challenging data environment. Junior data analysts will work with experienced staff in a biosecurity risk modelling team to solve data engineering and data science problems. The goal of our work is to derive meaningful insights that support decision-making to minimise adverse impacts of pests and diseases on Australia.
Entry Requirements
While admission standards vary, the typical entry requirements for a data analytics course could be summarised as follows.
- Free online data analytics course: None
- Bachelor of Data Analytics: A sufficient ATAR score, with mathematics subject achievement
- Graduate Certificate in Data Analytics: A bachelor degree or relevant experience
- Master of Data Analytics: A bachelor degree, with solid grades and/or in a relevant discipline.
To do well in a data analytics course, you need strong mathematical aptitude. Some postgraduate programs make this an entry requirement while others don't, instead allowing applicants to use their own judgement about their suitability.