A cost check for digital skills: This is how much training in the field of big data costs.

Do you love working with data and already have a basic knowledge of IT? But you still lack the qualifications you need to work as a data analyst, data scientist or data engineer?

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Together with Tonka Communications, we have researched for you which soft and hard skills are among the most important requirements, and what it costs to learn these skills in courses and seminars. On average, a hard skills course will cost you 1,461.11 euros. On average, ten different hard skills are required for the data professions we studied. Soft skills courses are significantly more expensive at an average of €1,801.63, but only an average of four soft skills are a requirement for Big Data jobs. 

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These are the most expensive hard skills

If you're interested in becoming a security analyst, you should familiarize yourself with various aspects of security operations centers (SOC). A three-day training course in the field hits an average of €3,161.67, which translates to a cost of about €131.74 per hour. No other hard skills training for the professions analyzed is as expensive as this. Also associated with high costs are training courses for MicroStrategy (107.47 euros/hour) and Big Data analytics (102.40 euros/hour), which are particularly relevant for aspiring Data Scientists. In comparison, courses for improving English skills are the cheapest at an average of 11.40 euros per hour. 

When looking for suitable training courses, you should not only keep an eye on the hourly costs, but also on the duration and thus the total cost of the courses. You should plan the most time for learning new programming languages: The courses are the longest with an average of 40 course hours (five days) for the Spark language, followed by 35 hours (about 4.5 days) for Java and Python.

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These are the most expensive soft skills

Leadership skills are crucial, especially if your goal is to eventually lead and coordinate an entire team of IT professionals. To develop these leadership skills, the average course price is about 2,507 euros, which equates to about 111.18 euros per hour. Seminars to promote personal responsibility and self-management are around EUR 95.58 per hour, which is about EUR 16 less expensive. Close behind are training courses to strengthen teamwork skills, at around 94.26 euros per hour. Analytical thinking is the most cost-effective soft skill, with corresponding training courses costing an average of 42.57 euros per hour. 

The seminars for soft skills are not only slightly more expensive on average, they also take longer - but, as already mentioned at the beginning, fewer are required in job postings for Big Data jobs. By far the longest training course is that of the coach: On average, around 125 course hours must be completed to acquire the qualities of a coach.

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On average, it costs €19,152.21 to train all skills for a Big Data job

The job ads we analyzed showed us that Data Scientists have the most extensive requirements - a total of 21 hard skills and two soft skills are required. If you want to learn and practice all these skills through courses and training, you would have to attend an average of 179 course hours, which is almost 23 days, spending €35,109.64 on training. Also associated with high costs are the training courses for Data Analysts and Data Engineers, as 20 skills are required in both cases. The average costs are 29,050.26 euros and 28,695.51 euros respectively. The average course duration is 431.25 and 406.25 hours, respectively, which corresponds to about 54 and 51 days, respectively, and is thus the longest training duration compared to other professions.

Christian Rebernik, founder of Tomorrow University, comments on the research: "Whether you are a budding data scientist, an experienced IT professional, or an executive, mastering data analytics, understanding how to process and work with advanced machine learning techniques is essential not only for personal career competitiveness but also for contributing to the responsible use of data to drive positive impacts on the environment and society in today's data-driven era. For modern businesses, Big Data skills are vital for unlocking the true potential of data. However, this research highlights that, especially in the tech sector, the optimal candidate possesses the right combination of hard skills and soft skills. Unfortunately, traditional higher education tends to prioritize hard skills, leaving the practical application of these skills in tandem with essential soft skills largely unaddressed. In our learning curriculums at Tomorrow University we emphasize precisely this holistic approach: a synergy of relevant hard and soft skills, along with their practical application - working alongside our industry partners who take an active role in our learner's education by providing them with hands-on experience in tackling real-world challenges. This is how we nurture the digital changemakers of tomorrow. Our learners will be equipped not just with technical proficiency but also with the ability to make data-driven decisions for a better future."