Program at a Glance
- Complete in as few as 9 months
- 5 online courses
- $2,992-$3,520
Learn the Language of Choice for High-Demand Jobs in Data Science and Tech
Python is the most wanted new software skill by tech professionals, according to a 2020 StackOverflow Survey. An easy-to-use, open-source, versatile programming language, Python is widely used in data science and software engineering roles. Designed for beginning and intermediate programmers, the Python for Data Science, Web and Core Programming Professional Concentration provides a strong foundation and understanding in Python programming. Whether you're looking to enhance your career by further developing your Python skills or you're interested in a career in data science or computer programming, this online program will give you the hands-on experience and confidence you need to succeed.

Ready to Enroll?
Check out individual courses that are currently open for enrollment.
Who is This Program For?
- Professionals who work with data in their role or industry who can use Python to enhance their research and analysis skills
- Data engineers, data scientists, business analysts or other data specialists who can use Python to improve the data infrastructure and reporting capabilities at their organization
- Software and technology professionals who can use Python in their development work across various tech domains
- Career explorers seeking to add Python to their skillsets to expand future career options, discover new areas of applications or potentially change careers
- Senior tech leaders who need to understand Python to improve communication and teamwork
What You'll Learn
You'll complete this program with advanced knowledge of Python programming concepts and its application into data science, including:
- Advanced Python language features for writing efficient programs
- Applications for data mining and data analytics
- Solving data-related problems and assessing and developing algorithms
- Coding using Python scripting, syntax tools and object-oriented coding theories
What You'll Get
Our program offers:
- UC-quality education with academic credit
- A digital badge for your LinkedIn profile to share your professional achievement
- Online convenience with an engaging interactive format
- One-on-one interaction with veteran data scientists from a variety of industries
- Python skills that are in high demand across many industries, giving you flexibility in the job market
- Hands-on experience with practical application

Earn a Badge
Earn a digital badge for your LinkedIn profile that demonstrates your mastery of this subject area. Learn more.
Career outlook for software developers, applications:
- Annual Job Openings (2019): 945,469
- Projected Growth (2019-2029): 27.2%
- Median salary: $103,000 (Highly experienced workers can earn up to $161,000)
Source: Economic Modeling Specialist Intl.
This program requires the successful completion of five courses for a total of 9.5 academic units. Course content is frequently revised to ensure that the program is up to date with the latest industry standards. For this reason, you must complete all of the course requirements of your certificate with a "C" or better and within five years from the day you enroll in the first course. A certificate will not be awarded if the requirements are not completed and your application for candidacy is not received within this timeframe.
It is suggested, but not required, that you take courses in the following order: Introduction to Python Programming; Intermediate Python; Python for Data Analysis; Data Preparation, Modeling, and Visualization with Python; and Data Structures, Data Mining and Big Data with Python. Order can be flexible depending on your experience level, speak to a program representative if you have questions: cpe-ted@ucdavis.edu.
Required Courses
As technological innovation unlocks new professional opportunities, building technical skills will give you a head start in your career, no matter what field you are in. This online course serves as an introduction to our Professional Concentration in Python for Data Science, Web and Core Programming and is designed for professionals looking to develop relevant software skills in general or switch to a more technical career.
Introduction to Python aims to ease you into the world of programming, especially if you do not have a technical background. Through remote lectures, group discussions and hands-on activities, this beginner course will give you a foundational understanding of programming and open doors for professional development. By the end of this course, you will have enough technical knowledge and programming experience to further explore Python or any other programming language, either on your own or in more advanced courses.
Learning Outcomes
- Learn how to use variable types, flow control, functions and data structures
- Apply these tools in Python to interact with the system
- Practice writing simple scripts in Python to process text files
- Understand how to use Jupyter for Python programming
Skills You’ll Gain
- Basic script writing
- Utilizing various tools and functions in Python
- Operating development tools like Jupyter
Pave the path to a technical career by strengthening your programming skills. This online course is part of our Professional Concentration in Python for Data Science, Web and Core Programming and is designed for professionals looking to develop relevant software skills in general or switch to a more technical career.
Intermediate Python will delve into essential data science applications of programming. Lectures, group discussions and hands-on activities will teach you the basics of object-oriented programming using Python. You will become familiar with concepts such as recursion, linear data structures, trees, graphs, maps and hash tables. By the end of this course, you will be able to develop algorithms and think computationally when solving data-related problems.
Learning Outcomes
- Apply Python advanced language features to write efficient programs
- Use advanced Python Data Structures for efficient handling of data
- Access and manipulate data from SQL databases (MySQL) using Python connectors
- Analyze data with Python PANDAS
- Understand and implement MapReduce in Python
- Use big data frameworks like Hadoop in Python for big data analysis and analytics
- Use machine learning concepts in AWS EMR
Skills You’ll Gain
- Data analysis in Python
- Writing efficient programs
- Using advanced tools in Python
Unlock new career opportunities by delving deeper into the world of data science. This online course is the third part in our Professional Concentration in Python for Data Science, Web and Core Programming and is designed for professionals looking to develop relevant software skills in general or switch to a technical career in data science or software engineering.
Data Structures and Data Mining with Python will introduce advanced Python programming features, with an emphasis on cloud computing, to solve large data problems. Lectures, group discussions and hands-on activities will allow you to explore how the Python built-in data structures such as lists, dictionaries and tuples can be used to perform increasingly complex data analysis while creating regression and cluster models for data mining. This course will cover topics such as ETL with command line interface, Docker, functional programming, MapReduce framework and Spark with Spark ML. You will gain practical experience with Amazon Web Services Elastic Computing, Elastic MapReduce and Google Cloud Computing
Learning Outcomes
- Apply Python advanced language features to write efficient programs
- Use advanced Python Data Structures for efficient handling of data
- Access and manipulate data from SQL databases (MySQL) using Python connectors
- Analyze data with Python PANDAS
- Understand and implement MapReduce in Python
- Use big data frameworks like Hadoop in Python for big data analysis and analytics
- Use machine learning concepts in AWS EMR
Skills You’ll Gain
- Data analysis in Python
- Writing efficient programs
- Using advanced tools in Python
Get a head start in your career by gaining essential data analysis skills. This online course is the fourth part in our Professional Concentration in Python for Data Science, Web and Core Programming and is designed for professionals looking to develop relevant software skills in general or switch to a more technical career.
Python for Data Analysis will introduce basic data analysis applications of Python for those with little or no programming experience. Through remote lectures, group discussions and hands-on activities, you will learn how to ingest data, produce plots and analysis and fit models. Along with the basics of the Python language, this course will introduce various Python libraries; you will learn how to import data and manipulate it efficiently using NumPy, how to produce plots and data visualizations with matplotlib and how to run a statistical analysis using pandas. By the end of this course, you will be able to immediately apply your new skills to perform basic data analysis tasks in Python.
Learning Outcomes
- Load, explore, clean, analyze and plot data using Python
- Practice using various Python libraries
Skills You’ll Gain
- Basic data analysis in Python
- Experience with NumPy, matplotlib, pandas, scikit-learn and eclipse
Gain the tools you need to succeed in a data-oriented career. This online course is the fifth part in our Professional Concentration in Python for Data Science, Web and Core Programming and is designed for professionals looking to develop relevant software skills in general or switch to a more technical career.
Data Preparation, Modeling and Visualization with Python will teach you how to create business value by effectively importing, preparing, modeling and visualizing data using Python. You will learn how to implement various models like linear regression, logistic regression and decision trees using both supervised and unsupervised modeling techniques. This course will primarily cover the Python packages pandas and scikit-learn, which will provide a useful toolkit for professionals in machine learning, data science, data mining or web data fields.
Learning Outcomes
- Practice cleaning and visualizing data
- Learn how to fit predictive models using Python
- Assess efficient ways to explore data
- Understand how to deal with common data preparation tasks
Skills You’ll Gain
- Data preparation and modeling
- Experience with pandas and scikit-learn
Required Courses
Required Courses | Units | Fall | Winter | Spring | Summer |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Introduction to Python Programming | 2 | Online | Online | Online | Online |
Intermediate Python | 2 | Online | Online | ||
Python Data Structures, Data Mining, and Big Data | 2 | Online | Online | ||
Python for Data Analysis | 1.5 | Online | Online | ||
Data Preparation, Modeling and Visualization with Python | 2 | Online | Online |
- At Your Own Pace: Take individual courses for a total of $3,520 (or between $560-$740 per course).
- Fast Track: Pay $2,992 in full at the time of enrollment and save over $500 on the cost of the program. Learn more
For information about financing your education, please click here.
Ready to advance your career? Pick the option that best suits your needs and your lifestyle:
- Register. Fill out a brief program registration form. By doing so, you declare your intent to complete the program in 5 years or less, lock in program requirements and will be contacted by a program adviser who will work with you to map out your academic path.
- Fast Track. Enroll in our Python for Data Science, Web and Core Programming Fast Track Program to save 15% on the cost of the program.
- Enroll in an individual course. Check out individual courses that are currently open for enrollment. Courses will be applied to the program if you later decide to complete the professional concentration.
- Sign up an information session. Learn more about the program by enrolling in a free info session. If an information session for this program is not currently open for enrollment, click on “notify me,” and we’ll contact you when then next one becomes available.
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Questions? We’re here to help.
Contact our Enrollment Coach, Katie Orton, if you would like to schedule an appointment. She can speak with you about our program, answer your questions and help ensure it’s the right fit for your goals. Schedule your 30-minute conversation with Katie.
If you’ve got a question, email us or call (530) 757-8777.