Learn how to use Power BI, a powerful data visualization tool, to create interactive and aesthetically pleasing charts, graphs, and maps. Learn how to connect to datasets, analyze and structure data, customize visualizations, and publish reports.
Learn Power BI for data analysis & visualization and become a certified Power BI Data Analyst Associate in this hands-on certification course.
Learn the essential skills needed to become a Data Analyst or Business Analyst, including data analysis, data visualization, and statistical analysis. Gain practical experience through real-world projects and prepare for a successful career in the field of data analytics.
Data lies at the heart of modern business culture. Google has got rich by collecting and selling it, and companies collect as much of it as is possible from their activities both on and offline. Amassing data is one thing, but doing something with it is another, and, unless someone sorts through (“cleans” or “wrangles”) it and then makes sense of it, data has no value.
Microsoft’s Power BI (business intelligence) is a data analysis and visualization tool that puts an entire suite of powerful features at the user’s fingertips. It makes sense out of data, even enormous amounts of it (so-called “Big Data”), and makes it possible for people to draw lessons from it in any number of useful ways. Moreover, the software not only analyzes data, it also creates handsome and easily intelligible reports which can then be shared throughout a work group or even an entire organization. While Power BI doesn’t make full-fledged Data Analysts out of people who pick it up for the first time, it makes much data analysis readily accessible and intelligible to non-data professionals. It is thus a highly adaptable and useful tool at all levels of business.
One of the selling points of Power BI is the way in which it democratizes data and data analysis. Indeed, one of Microsoft’s sales slogans for the software is “create a data-driven culture with business intelligence for all.” Thanks to Power BI, data analysis is within the grasp of anyone at any level in an organization. That means that Big Data can be put at the service, not only of major corporate decision-makers, but of people across an entire company. The software opens up the usefulness of data and data interpretation.
You can’t build an entire career on knowing how to use Power BI. On the other hand, because it was designed with so many different types of workers in mind, there are few people in the business world who wouldn’t benefit from knowing how to use the software. Power BI is intuitive and fairly easy to grasp, so it’s not a difficult skill to acquire. That said, it can also be a highly useful one, particularly in Chicago with its major financial markets. But the usefulness of Power BI goes beyond the world of finance: any business that is concerned with data can benefit from employees who know how to use the software. A firm grasp on Power BI can even be the first step toward a career in data analysis.
In Chicago, Data Analysts, who mine data for details about an organization’s past performance, earn approximately $70,000 per year. Data Scientists, who interpret data in function of a company’s projected future performance, take home an average annual salary of nearly $120,000. Digital Analysts, who specialize in interpreting data from digital media, earn closer to $80,000 a year.
There are two schools that offer instruction in Power BI in Chicago. ONLC Training Centers, located in the Willis Tower in Chicago, provides classes at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels that introduce students to the powerful features of Power BI and take them through to some of the more complex features built into the software. Certstaffix Training, located on the New East Side of Chicago, also offers a variety of Power BI classes, although these are geared more to training beginners rather than to developing highly sophisticated users of the software.
Instruction at both ONLC Training Centers and Certstaffix Training is virtual, meaning that the teacher is not in the room with the students, who are able to take the classes in the schools’ computer labs. The classes may also be taken fully online from any location anywhere with a stable internet connection.
Instead of in-person learning, many people have turned to the option of online education. It has nearly all the advantages of in-person learning, along with several convenient features that attending a class in a brick-and-mortar school can’t provide, the most obvious of which are not having to commute to a school and being able to study in the comfort of your own space. Many people also find it easier to concentrate without the distractions that come from putting a lot of people in the same room. Online learning can be just as hands-on as in-person learning and just as personal as well: the teacher operates in real-time along with the students, meaning that students can ask the instructors questions whenever the need arises.
Noble Desktop, which created this tool, offers several Power BI classes. That selection is headlined by their Power BI Bootcamp which, in six hours, turns beginners into more-than-competently skilled users of the software. The curriculum works from hands-on projects that allow students to learn by actually working with Power BI. Students therefore aren’t compelled to sit and listen to a stultifying online lecture for six hours; the hands-on model has been proven to be the most effective way for students to acquire new tech skills.
Further alternatives for online Power BI classes include those offered by NYIM Training. You may also wish to consider the Power BI courses taught at NYC Career Centers.
Would you like to upskill your current team members in the uses of Power BI? Whether they’re new to the software or in need of understanding its more advanced features, Noble Desktop can provide you with a solution for corporate and onsite Power BI training. It offers a voucher program that makes it possible for your team members to select from Noble’s regular class menu; volume discounts are available. Noble can also arrange for live in-person classes at your office location by sending you one of its experienced teachers, or it can set up online training using a teleconferencing platform such as Zoom or Google Meets. Please contact Noble Desktop’s corporate sales team for further information.