Data is all around us, but it isn’t always easy to access or understand. Databases – digital storage systems for information – are how we organise data in a way that’s useful to us; database skills will enable you to build, architect, and extract data from a database. This practical course will introduce you to databases, database models, and essential techniques for database design, querying (using SQL), and administration.
COURSE LENGTH:
COURSE STRUCTURE:
- Introduction to Databases
- Ethical, Privacy, & FAIR Data Principles
- Database Models
- Relational Database Design
- Structured Query Language
- Data Manipulation
- Functions & Aggregates
- Indexing & Query Optimisation
- Database Administration
- Database Management Systems & Emerging Trends
- Non-Relational Databases: Part 1
- Non-Relational Databases: Part 2
STUDY OPTIONS:
Part Time
1 x 3 hour live online evening class per week over 12 weeks.
SUMMARY:
Learn the craft of architecting and building databases, transforming raw data into a valuable resource for any organisation. This course will build your proficiency in data manipulation techniques and data queries using Structured Query Language (SQL) - a simple and standardised programming language. You will also explore both relational and non-relational database models and their applications, giving you a thorough grounding in database management and administration (including security and user management). You will learn about some of the innovations happening in the data management space and gain an understanding of the T-SQL language variations added by providers such as Microsoft and Oracle. As organisations find themselves with ever-increasing volumes of data, this hands-on course is ideal for professionals who have access to this data and want to find new ways to derive business value from it. An exciting element of this course is that it explores the basic principles of ethical, privacy, and FAIR data in data management and demonstrates how to apply these principles when working with databases.
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES:
The skills and knowledge learned on this course would be ideal for a professional looking to start or develop their career as a database administrator, data analyst, back-end developer, etc. This course is an excellent complement to your other IT skills, developing knowledge you could leverage to advance in your current role or branch out into a more specialised position.
ASSESSMENT AND CERTIFICATION
This course is assessed through a set of short MCQ exercises (20% of your assessment) completed each week, and a final project (80% of your assessment). The MCQs are designed to ensure key concepts have been learned and can be applied in context. The final project is a practical assignment where students must set up a database and then write queries using Structured Query Language (SQL) to solve given tasks, answering questions about the data contained in the database.
Your UCD Professional Academy Diploma will be issued electronically on a secure platform, with a link that you can share with employers and others wishing to verify your credentials. You’ll also be able to add the certification to your LinkedIn profile to demonstrate your achievement to your network as well as recruiters and potential employers searching for individuals with your skills and experience.
This course is not on the National Framework of Qualifications.
LEARNER PROFILE:
This course would be ideal for a professional who is already competent at analysing and visualising data (for example using Python) but who finds themselves working with data that is not particularly organised or accessible. Given the importance of data in business today, any IT professional will find value in a better understanding of databases and how they work. The course is also suitable for business professionals who work with data regularly and want to understand how to leverage databases more effectively. Although the course teaches Structured Query Language (SQL), it does not cover other programming languages like Python or R.
