Who needs a Six Sigma certification?

If you are attempting to improve your career outlook, you may be thinking about trying to get some type of certification for your resume. For many people, a Six Sigma certification is an ideal option. Six Sigma offers a number of different levels of certification that are designed for various types of jobs or roles within a company.

Unlike many certification programs, however, these aren’t something that you can just study for a few weeks and take a test. They require practical, hands on experience in many cases. In addition, you can either start at the lowest level certification and work your way up or jump right to a higher level option if that fits better with your current job or future career goals. There is really no doubt that attaining a Six Sigma certification will be beneficial to everyone, the main question is just which certification to pursue.

Six Sigma White Belts

This is something of an unofficial Six Sigma certification and doesn’t actually require an exam or other efforts. Those who have been given an overview of what Six Sigma is, and have become familiar with the various terms will be considered white belt.

Six Sigma Yellow Belt

The yellow belt is someone who is trained to part of an overall Six Sigma team. They will be given training, typically either in a classroom or from a mentor, and need to pass a written exam. Those who seek a yellow belt certification will usually be the workers or implementation professionals on a project, not the leaders.

Six Sigma Green Belt

A Six Sigma green belt is a significant jump up in terms of responsibilities and difficulty to attain. In order to become green belt certified, one must complete a challenging written exam and then also participate in two Six Sigma qualifying projects (or one project plus other work experience). This can take quite a while to accomplish depending on the role of the individual. Once someone has a green belt they can work on most types of Six Sigma projects, and serve in leadership roles on some of them. They will also work closely with black belts.

Six Sigma Black Belt

The Six Sigma black belt is something that those in management positions will likely want to acquire. To get this certification one must complete an exam and finish a number of Six Sigma projects. They will typically have been mentored by either another black belt, or a master black belt for some time. Those with this certification will lead projects and mentor green belts.

Six Sigma Master Black Belt

The master black belt is the highest level of certification in the program. Those who acquire this certification will be senior managers at a company and spend the bulk of their time providing guidance to the company as a whole and serving as a mentor to promising black belts.