One of the latest trends in the ongoing evolution of Six Sigma is its rising popularity among college students and its appearance in universities’ curricula. These courses are exposing students to the power of data-driven quality improvement and, in many cases, giving them firsthand opportunities to apply Six Sigma in a professional setting.Green Belt classes are now available in undergraduate and graduate programs in universities around the world, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, Seoul National University, and the Consortium of Universities for International Studies (CIMBA) in Italy. Are these classes effectively preparing students for professional work? What effects do they have on businesses and quality improvement?

Master Black Belt Lee Campe says he believes this trend is a boon to both groups, because it gives students skills that make them attractive to prospective employers and gives businesses access to personnel already trained in Six Sigma. As a Six Sigma instructor at CIMBA and Georgia Tech, he’s seen plenty of supporting evidence.

Preparing students
After years of working as a Six Sigma practitioner, executive and consultant, Campe approached Georgia Tech in 2003 with a proposal to offer Six Sigma training through its Master of Business Administration program. Georgia Tech agreed, and now its MBA candidates can become certified Green Belts by taking a special topics in business management course.

The class begins before the semester starts with a three-day intensive session during which Campe teaches students how to use specific software to clarify a problematic business process and identify the variables affecting it—steps addressed in the define, measure and analyze phases of a Six Sigma project. After this initial session, students spend the semester learning about the improve and control phases of Six Sigma, and applying their knowledge by developing an actual improvement project for a local business.

In three years, the course has become wildly popular. The class is limited to 30 students, and when it was made available for online registration in the fall of 2005, it filled up within minutes. Campe attributes the great demand to hands-on experience with Six Sigma and Minitab statistical software, which makes students more attractive to prospective employers.

“The skills my students develop are way beyond what most in the market are given. They leave my class with 80 hours of learning Minitab and applying it to real projects,” Campe said. “And when companies come to recruit at Georgia Tech and realize students have hands-on Six Sigma experience, it opens doors. When Amgen Pharmaceuticals came last year, the first question they asked was, ‘What do you know about Six Sigma?’ And my students were the only ones able to say, ‘Well not only do I know about it, but I’m Green Belt-certified.’”

Eddie Sumner, an MBA candidate who took Campe’s course and then interned for Amgen, agrees. Sumner first heard about Six Sigma during a talk by a guest speaker at Georgia Tech, and then again at an information session on internships with General Electric. When he discovered he could take Campe’s class as an elective course, he signed up and was glad he did.

“I have the training at the top of my resume and interviewers almost always notice it,” he said. “It’s definitely a skill they look for.”