Certificate Courses You Should Pursue Along With BCA

Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) is one of the most popular courses after class 12, for students who have an inclination towards understanding computer software. It is always a good idea to pursue additional certifications along with a regular graduation course, since the certifications help one upskill and understand more precisely the demands of the industry. In other words, certification courses, when chosen carefully, help one become better prepared for the job market. We shall now elaborate on a few courses one may pursue along with a BCA course.

Python

Python is used extensively in data science for a variety of functions, from writing scripts to performing tasks around data clean-up, analysing patterns in data, and also writing a multitude of machine learning algorithms. If you aspire to foray into the world of data science or machine learning, Python can serve to be a true ally. A lot of companies also write their software in Python and it can be helpful in such places as well.

One may opt for any of the platforms like Coursera, Udemy, etc for in-depth Python online certificate courses after 12th, post which they can take up some project to get hands-on with the language. Another tip to learn the language is to solve usual coding questions on websites like Leetcode or Codechef. This shall help you become more pally with the language that you may pursue along with a BCA course.

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Java

Java is still widely used in software engineering domains because of the wide community support it provides. Oracle provides a couple of Java certification courses which can be a good addition to your resume while also helping you appreciate the language in a new light. Oracle Certified Associate Java Programmer - OCAJP and Oracle Certified Professional Java Programmer are some of the popular certifications.

You can also go the extra mile and try to explore some java development frameworks like spring or dropwizard to become more hands-on with using Java as a tool for development. You can also try to learn the internals of garbage collection in Java and the impact it has on the memory of an application.

Java Is Widely Used In Software Engineering Domains

Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence

Since the colleges’ course curricula might not cover machine learning or artificial intelligence concepts in-depth, it will be a good idea to try and acquire more knowledge of these fields, given the kind of demand the industry has for them nowadays. After gaining a basic hold on statistics and programming, one can check learning platforms like Coursera and Udemy for online certificate courses after 12th which offer a lot of brilliant, well-structured courses around basic machine learning algorithms, the most popular one being Andre Ng’s course on Supervised Machine Learning.

Kaggle competitions can be a good scratchpad to practice problem-solving skills in this case. If you happen to develop more interest in one of the artificial intelligence specialisations, like image processing or natural language processing, you can look for specific problem statements to solve in these fields to get some hands-on experience around the basics of the field along with a BCA course.

Database Management

One of the subjects taught as part of the BCA course is around databases. One can step a notch up and go into depth of databases, how do they actually store data internally, scaling databases with more data, how to be able to model the data properly to optimise queries the best. There are specific job roles for database administrators which work on optimising the performance of databases.

To gain a more extensive understanding of database management, you can take up one of the courses offered by NPTEL and practice writing the most optimised queries using the SQL section in Leetcode or Hackerrank. There is a gold mine of knowledge on the website use-the-index-luke.com, which helps with the concepts of index and their implementations and all of this knowledge can fine-tune your learning and understanding of databases. They also help you tackle general software engineering problems better, since you would have more knowledge on building bigger systems. As highlighted earlier, there are also some specialised online certificate courses after 12th on Udemy or Coursera. The courses offered by these websites are recognised widely and can be supplemented with some projects to add more value to your understanding as well as your resume.

Network Engineering

Computer Networks is a field with many prospects in terms of learning and also finding jobs eventually. One may start with going through the basics of networking through one of the courses offered by NPTEL, or may do a thorough reading of the book ‘Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach’. Once the basics are done, you may aim for a CCNA certification offered by Cisco followed by a CCNP certification. These should help you establish some footing in the field and also highlight your efforts well along with a BCA course. Google also offers a couple of certifications around the cloud network engineer learning path.

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Cloud Practitioner Certifications

Amazon Web Services and Google are known to provide certifications around their cloud offerings and there are companies which have specific job requirements for people with these certifications. Cloud is a technology that is here to stay for a long time, so the knowledge you acquire through these certifications will help you in the long run along with a BCA course.

Amazon Web Services or AWS has a Solutions Architect Certification while the cloud website of Google lays down a list of certifications that Google offers around the same domain.

Security Engineering

Security is of primary importance in any software company. We are aware of how Google defended itself against a Ddos attack successfully. If the field of security interests you, you can further explore the security vulnerabilities in a system and the measures taken to ward them through specific certification courses along with your Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA).

Google also offers a Security Engineer Learning Path by using Google Cloud as the tool to teach the internals. There are some popular certifications around security engineering, namely CISSP and CISA.

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Before you finalise on enrolling for any certification program, you must check its curriculum. Since you would already have primary college course material to finish, ensure you enjoy learning from these additional courses, so that your journey adds on to your knowledge instead of leaving you burnt out.

Deboshree holds a BTech in Computer Science and Engineering from BIT Mesra. Backed with 6 years of experience working with Goldman Sachs and Walmart, she currently works with Cred as backend engineer.