• Having a Six Sigma Certification credential on your resume is a necessity in today’s modern business environment. Interviewers expect you to acquire and retain these certifications that are relevant in the job market
• Six Sigma certification ranks #1 in the top Change Management and Business Skill necessary in the job market today
• Individuals who are Six Sigma trained earn higher than those who are not trained
• Individuals who are Six Sigma certified have higher probability of grabbing a new job or a promotion than those who do not possess Six Sigma certification
• Senior management of today’s organizations expect you to not only do your regular day-to-day job, but also participate and proactively contribute in process improvement initiatives
• Practicing Six Sigma tools, techniques and projects helps you become a change agent, prepares you for leadership roles, increases your business acumen, improves your visibility across the organization, allows you to become a process improvement specialist and enhances your career’s standard and credibility
• By executing Six Sigma projects, you increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the business process you work with
• Adding a Six Sigma credential on your resume proves your commitment to proactively improve your business process

• No. AIGPE is an independent global Lean Six Sigma Credentialing Organization for professionals across industries. It is not affiliated to IASSC or ASQ.

• AIGPE Certification is a globally recognized Lean Six Sigma Certification. AIGPE’s mission is to foster the needed process improvement and project management skills in a candidates, enhance his/her talent and capability to the level required by the industry, and provide a global recognition that gives the candidate a professional status in the industry.
• The Certified AIGPE professional manifests and illustrates their master and expertise in the subject as defined by AIGPE Body of Knowledge. This Body of Knowledge is the foundation of the many AIGPE Training and Certification Programs.
• A few essential metrics:
  1. AIGPE has trained 75,000+ unique students
  2. Over 470,000 minutes of content is consumed by AIGPE students each month
  3. 12,300+ active students each month
  4. 175+ countries taught
• One of the key reasons why AIGPE Certifications are considered of the highest value in the market is because:
  1. AIGPE provides training as well as prep work 
  2. Owns the training content
  3. Makes necessary upgrades to the material from time-to-time
  4. Provides the training material that includes on-demand video training, downloadable content, as well as activities
  5. Video training offers success stories, case studies, industry best practices, real-life anecdotes, thorough explanation of why a tool or a technique is supposed to be used the way it is used (basically unmatched quality of training and certification programs)
  6. The downloadable content provides offline training material, tools, templates, use cases and much more that the student values and puts to right use in their organization
  7. Provides the necessary support required by the student through various communication channels
• This level of knowledge is transformative for a candidate going through the training and certification process. It moulds the candidate’s mindset from a conventional task-oriented approach to a thorough holistic end-to-end business approach that organizations need today. It instils the right qualities and values required by a true Lean Six Sigma professional.
• After going through this comprehensive and hands-on training process, the candidate is fully prepared to sit for an independent evaluation of his/her knowledge and skills. And this evaluation is conducted through an unbiased certification exam that tests not only the candidate’s level of understanding but also examines his/her experience and expertise.
• These are the key reasons why AIGPE certifications are highly valued in the job market.

• • There are several institutions that provide Six Sigma Certification. If you are new to Six Sigma, it becomes increasingly difficult to choose the right institution for your certification.
  • When choosing the right institution to seek Six Sigma Certification, keep the following points in mind:
    1. Is the credentialing organization truly global? Most institution will include the number of countries they are training in on their website. If the information is not available, you can always reach them via their defined communication channel and ask this question.
    2. What is the Body of Knowledge offered by the institution? A legitimate Six Sigma training and certification institution has a defined outline of the Body of Knowledge for each Sigma belt. The training content and certification exams are built based on that specific body of knowledge. You must take a few minutes to go through the body of knowledge of the specific Six Sigma course you are planning to take. You can compare this body of knowledge to other institutions and ask for more information if you come across any gaps.
    3. How many courses do they offer? Institutions that are in serious business of providing world-class training and certification programs generally do not offer limited number of courses. They offer multiple programs. As a rule of thumb, if an institution offers at least 10 distinct courses in their current roster, they may be considered good.

• Do they offer Certification? Most institutions only offer training. They do not offer Certification Exams and recommend you pay additional charges to apply for a certification exam elsewhere. I term these institutions as taking half-ownership of your students. They have only created training but have failed to create the necessary eco-system to certify the trained candidates.  Find an institution that can offer both, training and certification. 

• How many reviews do they have? And are they unbiased? Reviews are a key component of any training and certification program. A good institution should have a mechanism to capture and display unbiased reviews of their existing customers/students. As a rule of thumb, if an institution has 8,000+ reviews with an average rating of 4.1+ out of 5, it is considered to be good.

Who is the trainer? What are his/her experience, credentials, and coaching capability? Trainer is a key component of any Six Sigma training and certification programs. Your training must have a minimum experience of 15+ years in the field of Quality. He/she must be at least a Master Black Belt, must have completed extensive number of projects, and coached for several hundred hours.

• • The steps to get your Six Sigma Certification vary from institution to institution
  • At AIGPE, you must completed the following steps to achieve your Six Sigma Certification Credential:

• Complete the Six Sigma course to 100%: Each AIGPE training course is divided in sections and lectures. One section covers one topic. One lecture discusses a concept of that topic. Complete the course content to 100%.

• Practice Activities: Each AIGPE course is supplemented with several comprehensive activities. Complete all activities, test questions, and practice all tools and techniques thoroughly.

• Pass the Certification Exam: AIGPE’s Six Sigma Certification exams are not just a test of your knowledge. It tests your ability to apply this knowledge in real-world situations. Pass the certification exam with defined minimum threshold.

• Get Certified: Upon completion of your exam, you will be notified of your result immediately. You will then receive your AIGPE Certification kit on email within the given stipulated time.

• Pricing of Six Sigma Certification:

• AIGPE believes in providing world-class, state-of-the-art programs at an affordable price.
• The AIGPE Certification Exams are FREE for the first two attempts after completing the training

• Each Six Sigma institution has its own pros and cons. You must weigh the institution you are choosing based on the guidelines provided earlier by answering below questions:
  • Is the credentialing organization truly global?
  • What is the Body of Knowledge offered by the institution?
  • How many course do they offer?
  • Do they offer Certification along with the training?
  • How many reviews do they have? Are those reviews unbiased?
  • Who is the trainer? What are his/her experience, credentials, and coaching capability?

• Absolutely. I will share a real-life anecdote to answer this question:

I was working as a Team Lead in a call-centre. I was looking for a change of job as well as a change in my profile. I studied Six Sigma and achieved my Six Sigma Certification. In parallel, I was also actively giving job interviews in various organizations. 

On one of the days, I was giving a job interview for an Assistant Manager (Operations) position in a large call-centre organization. After several hours of interview, I reached a point where I knew I was selected for the job. At this point, the HR was discussing my salary expectations for this new role. 

• During those days, I used to earn INR 150,000 per annum. 

• And with this new role, my expectations were to earn at least INR 350,000 per annum

After hearing my expectations, the HR did not agree. She mentioned that this role has a ceiling salary of INR 250,000 per annum. 

I tried negotiating, but my efforts seemed to be in vain. The HR was not budging on increasing the salary bracket. During this discussion, the HR had my resume in her hand and she was going through the 4 page resume one-by-one while talking. I had achieved my Six Sigma certification just the previous day and had updated this credential on my resume in one corner. The HR spotted something on my resume and asked me to wait in the lobby for a few minutes. 

Then, after making me wait for 2+ hours in the lobby, I saw the HR walking towards me. She was accompanied by another individual who wore smart casuals and was looking bright and highly experienced. Both of them walked right towards me. This individual introduced himself as the Operations Manager who was hiring me as his assistant. He had a piece of paper in his hand which he handed over stating, “Congratulations, I got the job.” 

I glanced over the piece of paper – it was the offer letter. Now, this offer letter was a surprise. This was because:

• My current salary was INR 150,000

• They were giving me a salary of $250,000

• I was expecting a salary of $350,000

• But the offer letter had a salary of $450,000

I was pleasantly surprised. If you get a lower package, you must ask the reason for it. Similarly, if you get a higher package, you must definitely ask, right? So I asked the reason for a higher package than expected. To this, the Manager replied, “We have a lack of professionally trained Six Sigma people in our operational environment. We need these Six Sigma certified professionals. So our organization has approved a specific budget to hire those that we come across. And that is how, I had received this unexpected pay.”

I understood. But my story did not end there. I took the offer letter but did not accept the offer. I knew my existing organization where I worked as a team leader has a robust Quality organization. I reached out to my process owner and informed him about this new offer indicating that I was interested in joining the Quality team of our organization. 

In about six months, an internal job posting was rolled out for Assistant Manager – Quality position in my organization. I applied for it, performed well in the interview, and got the job. To my surprise, I did not get a package of INR 150,000 (which was my current package as a Team Leader), it was not $250,000 (which the earlier organization was willing to pay me first), nor did I get a package of $350,000 (which I was expecting), nor a package of $450,000. I received a pay package of $650,000! Excellent, isn’t it? After that there was no looking back. I continued to grow in my organizations across levels. I then jumped in an investment bank at a senior level, landed several speaking gigs for Six Sigma and Quality, became a visiting faculty for 19 different organizations globally, became an external consultant for several fortune 500 organizations and trained several thousand students globally. 

In a nutshell, a Six Sigma Certification is definitely helpful to increase your career opportunity. However, like my success story there are various other success stories. Similarly, there are failure stories too. But one common thing that they did not do in those failure stories was they were not willing to go the extra mile to be successful in their career. If you have the zeal, the burning desire, and absolute faith in making it big in your career, you must definitely try Six Sigma. 

• Six Sigma is a dry subject. Hence, it is preferable to take a Six Sigma course in a classroom environment. However, there are two problems with the classroom sessions:
  • They are extremely high on price
  • Post covid, most training organizations have moved to online courses
• My take is to go for online web-based courses for the following reasons:
  • These are video-on-demand courses. So you can take the course at your pace.
  • Most questions are covered in the material. If there are additional questions, you can always email and seek support.
  • Their course price is extremely low compared to the classroom courses
  • The value of certification remains the same irrespective of the type of delivery
  • You must review a few sample lectures before enrolling for the course to ensure you like the trainer’s teaching style 
  • Check if the institution has a robust refund policy in case you don’t like the course and plan to seek refund