On 28 February 2022, the Microsoft Certified: Data Analyst Associate certification was renamed to Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate.

Microsoft regularly reviews its portfolio to ensure it is updated with the latest technology, and this new name reflects the new skills required to be a data analyst today. Microsoft also released the new PL-300: Power BI Data Analyst Exam, which will be required to earn the Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification. This exam focuses on preparing, modelling, visualizing, and analysing data to maximize value for an organization. The new exam will replace Exam DA-100: Analysing Data with Microsoft Power BI, which will retire on 31 March 2022.

What this means for you

If you’ve already earned the Data Analyst Associate certification, including the completion of the old Exam DA-100, the new certification’s name will have automatically appeared in your Certification Dashboard since 28 February 2022.

Alternatively:

- If you’re studying for Exam DA-100, you still have until 31 March 2022 to take it.

- If you’ve just started preparing for Exam DA-100, consider reviewing the skills requirements for and switching your focus to the new Exam PL-300.

However, learners can pass either exam between 28 February and 31 March 2022 to earn their Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification.

What is a data analyst?

The role of a data analyst is someone who has the knowledge and skills to turn raw data into information and insight used to make business decisions.

Businesses, both large and small, deal with massive data volumes, and a lot depends on their ability to glean meaningful insights from them.

Data analysts interpret this data and turn it into useful information that businesses and organizations can use for critical decision-making.

As a result, data analysis has become one of the highest in-demand jobs worldwide, and data analysts are sought after by the world’s most prominent organizations.

Begin your learning journey to become a data analyst

To become a data analyst, you should enroll for the MS-PL300T00: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst course at Mecer Inter-Ed.

This course will discuss the various methods and best practices in line with business and technical requirements for modelling, visualizing, and analyzing data with Power BI. The course will also show you how to access and process data from various data sources, including relational and non-relational data sets. Additionally, it explores the implementation of proper security standards and policies across the Power BI spectrum, including datasets and groups. You will also learn how to manage and deploy reports and dashboards for sharing and content distribution. Finally, this course will demonstrate how to build paginated reports within the Power BI service and publish them to a workspace for inclusion within Power BI.

MIE as your Microsoft Learning Partner

Data is the essence of business, and effective value-creating initiatives cannot run without it. The Data Analyst Associate certification will help you and your team gain complete knowledge of how to drive business value through data visualizations that are easy to understand.