Tableau Training for Veterans

Are you a veteran returning to civilian life or a member of a veteran’s family aiming to avail yourself of entitlements and benefits? This article is designed to help you navigate your options for taking advantage of these services to enter a professional skills training program and acquire the Tableau skills you’ve always wanted to learn. Tableau is easy to learn because it doesn’t require writing any code. This software helps users create elegant data visualizations that present actionable insights to stakeholders, making it a powerful tool for conveying data findings. Because Tableau skills are in high demand across industries and professions, knowing how to visualize data with this tool can open professional doors, lead to high-paying career options, and set you apart from other job candidates.

What is Tableau?

Tableau is a data visualization tool. This software can simplify raw data into an accessible dashboard format that incorporates visual depictions of raw data, which can then be understood by various professionals working within a company.

Tableau provides features for real-time analysis, data blending, and collaboration capabilities. It allows Data Analysts to manipulate live datasets and devote their efforts more to analysis rather than data wrangling. Because Tableau doesn’t require programming or technical skills, it’s an accessible tool for data analytics.

Read more about what Tableau is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with Tableau Skills?

Tableau can bring together various data sources into a single point of truth. This provides one central source that’s useful for all types of business reporting. It also efficiently performs ETL operations (extract, transform and load). Tableau’s automated data reshaper tool can transform any data into the necessary format by splitting fields or eliminating headers or white space. Tableau’s automated reporting feature allows you to easily create a report, then set it to focus on a specific dataset so that the data will automatically refresh without requiring any coding knowledge. This tool’s visualization capabilities present information clearly, effectively, and engagingly. 

Support for Veterans

Veterans who want to learn to visualize data can find various support options from several organizations that can help them pursue their education. The GI Bill, which is also called the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, was initially created through the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to help World War II veterans access educational grants or stipends. Benefits aren’t just available to veterans through the GI Bill; they are also offered to active-duty service members and any of their dependents that quality. The GI Bill can be used toward non-college degree programs like vocational training and technical coursework, as well as on-the-job training, licensing, apprenticeships, certifications, work-study programs, and correspondence training. If you left the military after 2013, you have no limit on using the GI Bill. In addition, you can start and stop using the allotted funds as necessary rather than committing to continuous study in one timespan.

Another program veterans interested in Tableau may wish to look into is the Forever GI Bill. Known also as the Harry W. Coleman Veterans Educational Assistance Act, this program provides funding to help veterans pursue educational endeavors. The Forever GI Bill eliminates the 15-year limit previously imposed on using benefits. Now, the funding provided by this bill never expires. Eligible learners can use it toward indefinite access to a range of educational benefits in addition to paying for housing during their studies.

In addition to the GI Bill and Forever GI Bill, the VET TEC program is another excellent resource for veterans to explore for educational support. VET TEC was created to aid veterans with acquiring any necessary computer skills to begin a tech-related career. Program participants can use this program to receive training in a range of fields, such as computer software, information science, media applications, computer programming, and data processing. The programs currently available from Noble Desktop do not currently qualify for funding from the VET TEC program.

If you’re interested in learning Tableau to visualize data and want to find out more about the VA-supported programs that can help you with your studies, you may want to explore Noble Desktop. Noble’s eligible programs include a Data Analytics Certificate that includes Tableau training (available to veterans who can attend the in-person classes in New York City).

Why Learn Tableau

There are numerous reasons why learning Tableau can make you a competitive job candidate with the skills and training that can contribute to organizations in meaningful ways. Many of the biggest companies, such as Amazon, Facebook, PayPal, Uber, and Google, regularly post openings for Tableau Developers. Knowledge of this data visualization tool can greatly increase the likelihood of being noticed by a company. In addition to working as a Tableau Developer, you can pursue a range of other career options with Tableau training, such as Data Analyst, Tableau Developer, and BI Developer. Whereas training with other technologies can stagnate in professional settings, Tableau skills provide a range of job roles and are likely to continue to increase in popularity as more data is created and more companies understand the immense value in these numbers.

In addition to improving your career prospects, learning Tableau is an excellent way to contribute to your current employer. One of the main benefits of working with Tableau is it can handle large volumes of data for analysis without slowing down or crashing. It also makes it easy to organize data to be analyzed and visualized compartmentally. This software’s features also help users alter and manipulate data into filters, sets, groups, or joins, which can aid with data transformation. This allows non-technical users and those with no programming or data visualization experience to easily navigate this tool. Those who know how to work with Tableau can integrate data easily from different sources. With the help of this software’s data blending feature, Tableau users are able to mix data from various sources into the same chart or graph. Regardless of the data size, Tableau makes it easy for users to create engaging dashboards that convey high-level insights. 

When working with Tableau Server, you can connect to a variety of new data sources. This software allows you to connect with many file types beyond .csv files, including databases from Tableau Server and published data sources. Those who wish to perform cluster analysis can also do so using Tableau. This can provide insights into how similar various groups are based on specified parameters. Tableau users can merge separate data points using the software’s dual-axis functionality. This provides a helpful way to plot different fields on the same graph.

Why Choose a Skills Bootcamp?

If you’re a veteran interested in learning to work with Tableau for data analytics and visualization, you may not be certain which learning format to select. Tableau training is offered at most colleges and universities but typically isn’t a stand-alone major since this software is often taught alongside other data analytics tools and skills. College coursework may also be prohibitive for some veterans because it generally requires a four-year or longer time commitment. When studying data analytics in college, you will also be required to take other general education requirements which may not be related to data. This is another reason some learners prefer a more focused form of study. In addition, the cost of studying Tableau in the university setting can be quite high and cost tens of thousands of dollars a year. For these reasons, studying Tableau in a traditional college or university may not be the most efficient study option available for some veterans.

One alternative to college Tableau study is to enroll in a certificate program. These provide veterans with a learning format that’s significantly shorter than the time it would take to earn a bachelor’s degree. Certificates generally take just weeks or months to complete. Another benefit of certificate study is it’s a more affordable option than college. (Certificates typically cost several thousands of dollars.) Pursuing a certificate in Tableau or in data analytics offers a more focused form of study as well. Veterans receive hands-on training in data visualization from an expert, which is an excellent way to prepare for a career in data. Certificate study also affords the additional benefit of allowing you to select a program most in line with your professional aspirations.

For veterans interested in learning Tableau in a shorter program, enrolling in a bootcamp is a great option. Whereas university study requires students to complete a range of courses unrelated to Tableau or even data visualization, a bootcamp offers skills-specific training exclusively in Tableau. Bootcamps are generally much shorter in duration than college or certificate study; most bootcamps can be completed in just days or weeks as opposed to months or years. Cost is another consideration. Bootcamp study is often a much more cost-effective form of study than certificates or college work. These programs usually cost several hundred to several thousand dollars. For these reasons, bootcamp study provides an excellent resource for veterans interested in focusing their studies exclusively on Tableau.

Learn Tableau at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop provides several great Tableau learning opportunities. For those new to Tableau, Noble’s Tableau Bootcamp is a program that teaches students the fundamental components of data visualization. Those enrolled explore Tableau Public’s different tools to connect to datasets, analyze, filter, and structure the data to make visualizations.

For those seeking a more rigorous learning environment for learning Tableau, Noble Desktop’s Data Analytics Certificate is a great option that covers data analytic skills, languages, and programs, such as SQL, Excel, and Python. Expert instructors ensure that those enrolled receive training to become Data Analysts or Business Analysts. One-on-one mentoring is provided for all students.

In addition, for those interested in learning more about Tableau, Noble’s Tableau Resources page has more than 50 articles to help you learn more about this powerful data visualization tool.

Key Insights

• Learning Tableau is an excellent skill for a veteran to acquire. This industry-standard data analytics and visualization tool is used in various professions, from data analytics to business intelligence to financial analytics. Those who know how to work with this software have the power to find and share important data insights with a wide range of audience members. 
• Veterans who’d like to learn Tableau can take advantage of programs and bills that were created to help with their training and education. The GI Bill, the VET TEC program, and the Forever GI Bill are three such options that offer funding and resources for learning Tableau and other forms of technical training.
• Once you’ve decided you’d like to study Tableau, you will then need to select a study format. Four-year college or university programs are generally the longest, most expensive option. Certificates are shorter and more focused. For those interested in learning to work exclusively with Tableau, bootcamps are a good option because of their specific focus and affordable cost.
• If you’re a veteran who wants to learn to analyze and visualize data, Noble Desktop can provide comprehensive training.