Data Scientists are in demand currently with more job openings than candidates, pushing Microsoft to open its own degree program in computer science. The program is launched at eDX.com, which is a website for online courses and certificates created by Harvard University and MIT.

The Data Science curriculum is aimed towards professionals, who would need to start fresh and their newly attained skill would fill in the gap in the industry. Professionals from any stage of their career can join this employer-endorsed degree course which has a university-level curriculum.

There are nine courses and a final project and students needs to purchase certificates for each of the 10 curriculum. The certificate for the orientation class costs US$ 25, the verified certificate for “Statistical Thinking for Data Science and Analytics” costs US$ 99 and all other classes offer certificates for $49 each (the complete Data Science course costs US$ 516).

Microsoft is not the only company that has been offering an online education, Google, Udacity and Amazon have begun their online courses much earlier.