The influence of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Course on European students - A practical case

The influence of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Course on European students A practical case Dirkwinkel, T.1,2), Panieri, C.1,3), Preś, I.1,4) and Rosi, L.1,5) 1) 2)

University of Paderborn

3) 4)

ESTIEM

Linköping University

Eindhoven University of Technology 5)

Politecnico di Milano

International Conference on Quality Engineering and Management.

Barcelona, 11-13 July 2018.

ABSTRACT The Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course developed for the European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management association, ESTIEM, is meant to offer a new blended learning approach for teaching to Industrial Engineering and Management students across Europe. This paper aims to investigate the impact that the participation of such a course had on students, and how it can empower them. The paper will focus on the impact that the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Course has on students by investigating and comparing students from different countries that experienced different educational system structures.

Previous studies are going to be used to create a bit of background about Lean Six Sigma and to show the benefits of the blended learning method applied in the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Course (Rajala, Jarrett, and Turtiainen, 2017). An analysis of what benefits an optimized educational system that seems to maximize the learnings for a student can bring follows. Here, the authors aim to further understand the implications and the impact that such optimized methods have on students and universities.

Paper type & Keywords Research Paper.

Lean Six Sigma, Green Belt, ESTIEM, European Educational System, Industrial Engineering, and Management.

Purpose Educational systems in Europe vary significantly between the countries (Vansteenkisten, 2014).

Nonetheless, in Europe, there are more than one thousand Universities that thrive to have a standardized educational structure or offerings (Kształcenie i szkolenie, 2018). It is in this context that the European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management Association, ESTIEM, operates. ESTIEM, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), is a student association that aims to fill the gap between the educational and the working environments by providing students with several self-development and educational projects (Estiem.org, n.d.). One of its most recent projects, kicked off by three students and by Gregory H. Watson (Rajala, Jarrett, and Turtiainen, 2017), is the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course. The Course aims to teach the students of Industrial Engineering and Management in Europe in ESTIEM about Lean Six Sigma methodology through training events and local courses, which are delivered via online learning, practical sessions facilitated by students and a case study (Rajala, Jarrett, and Turtiainen, 2017). During the first year 30/04/2018 The influence of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course on European students. Dirkwinkel, Panieri, Pres, and Rosi.

of existence, the course interested more than 300 European students out of which 250 took part in the educational events, and more are applying. The course leads to the development of students and Universities in few important areas. The students are able to boost their careers by doing Green Belt project in companies and getting the certificate, which is recognized all over the world. Moreover, they can become more engaged in the subjects of their studies, Industrial Engineering and Management, and they can feel united with other European students by having the same education quality and outcome.

Furthermore, ESTIEM is based on four solid principles: embracing diversity, striving for development, encouraging participation and aiming high (Estiem.org, n.d.). An additional pillar that lays a foundation of ESTIEM is the “From students To students” concept. In the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course, this means that participants that successfully complete the theoretical part of the course can later become Lean Six Sigma Instructors and, hence, teach the subject to future participants. This gives students the unique opportunity to position themselves in a totally different, and most of the time entirely new point of view and brings sustainability to the project itself.

Moreover, the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course aims to provide more visibility to Universities themselves by integrating University diplomas with a high-quality course, which content is provided and certified by Gregory H. Watson, past-President and Honorary member of the International Academy for Quality.

This integration improves the curricula of Universities and thus unites them under Quality Management education courses. The unification under Quality Management courses creates a standardized and qualified body of knowledge that students can pass to other students with no financial investments needed from Universities side.

The authors of the research paper investigated the outcomes coming from the benefits of the Lean Six Sigma course for both students and Universities alike. The authors are responsible for the development of the Course, therefore, the data and implications have a relevant and realistic perspective.

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Tabe of Contents ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................... 2 Paper type & Keywords................................................................................................................................ 2 Purpose ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 RESEARCH ON LEAN SIX SIGMA ........................................................................................................... 5 A brief history of Lean Six Sigma ................................................................................................................ 5 The research topic ........................................................................................................................................ 5 Hypothesis 1 - Benefits for students ............................................................................................................. 6 Hypothesis 2 - Benefits for Universities ....................................................................................................... 8 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................................................... 8 MAIN FINDINGS .......................................................................................................................................... 9 Influence of the Course on Students’ development ...................................................................................... 9 Influence of the course on Universities ...................................................................................................... 12 PAPER .......................................................................................................................................................... 13 Originality .................................................................................................................................................. 13 Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................................... 13 Results ........................................................................................................................................................ 13 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 15

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RESEARCH ON LEAN SIX SIGMA A brief history of Lean Six Sigma The evolution of production systems in the automotive industry has been the common denominator for the development of both Lean and Six Sigma theories. Close to the end of the first half of the 20th century, new demands have been appearing: Customers started demanding more variety, and the production systems in place were not designed to comply with such demand, since they were focused on standardized, high volume products; as consequence, product’s life cycles started to decrease. After funding the known today as Toyota Motor Company in 1935, Kiichiro Toyoda, Taiichi Ohno, and other founders had started building on Ford’s production line management principles, introducing simple innovations, which provided both continuity in process flow and a wide variety in product offerings (Holweg, 2007). By introducing these simple innovations, they invented what was known as the Toyota Production System, foundation of the Just in Time (JIT), which later gave birth to the Lean Management philosophies, born in the 1980s in companies collaborating with Japanese counterparts (Holweg, 2007). Building up through continuous improvement of the JIT philosophy and through refinement of Total Quality Management, Lean Six Sigma was born. As pointed out in different occasions by Gregory H. Watson, Lean Six Sigma is about combining the best of Just in Time and Total Quality Management, laying its foundation of two main ideas from both theories, no waste and reduction of the variance of the output; which allow process simplifications, but not too many (Methuen, 2004). Today, Lean Six Sigma is still an extremely valuable philosophy to follow to reach excellence, flexibility, and scalability. More and more businesses are applying the philosophy principles and businesses do not limit themselves by applying Lean Six Sigma only to production lines, but also to services industry as IT or finance.

The research topic The data from the European Commission Report (Vansteenkisten, 2014) prove that not surprisingly European education systems vary in their structure and offering. Countries have different perspectives in educating students, which therefore also create different opportunities for student’s development and careers. Even though there are these differences, there is also the effort of harmonizing higher-education in Europe. The Bologna Declaration in 1999 is undoubtedly a milestone for this development and is widely known (The Bologna Declaration of 19 June 1999, 2007). Over the past two decades, the European Union and several other non-EU countries have 30/04/2018 The influence of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course on European students. Dirkwinkel, Panieri, Pres, and Rosi.

created a framework for translating educational standards rather than harmonizing the educational systems themselves. As Bjørnåvold (2007) states there is a great diversity of educational institutions and systems in Europe, but this reflects the recognition of different needs on a local, regional and national level. The developed framework, the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning (EQF) promotes one of the most important goals of the EU, the mobility of people in Europe.

The presented ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma course (Rajala, Jarrett, and Turtiainen, 2017), using blended learning, is an opportunity to overcome the differences in European education using a new approach. The course does not aim to harmonize education systems but to offer a comparable education in a specific field. In addition, further investigations may be conducted to show how the practical application of the course learnings is different between locations in Europe. The course has started in November 2016 and so far, met with the interest of 296 European students from 31 nations (www.ESTIEM.org, n.d.) However, the impact of the course should be discussed given its influence on students to see what attracts them and how international learning can integrate students aiming for similar outcomes in their education.

Such a course as the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course can be held against its impact on students and Universities alike. To investigate this, a hypothesis must be formulated.

The authors aim to investigate the research question by taking into consideration a hypothesis (hypothesis, or hypothesis 1, in the text) regarding the potential benefits for students. A second hypothesis will be investigated through further research, which should investigate apparent benefits from the University side. The hypothesis 1 considers the relationship between students (participants) and the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course. A brief introduction to the research on benefits for universities is given by hypothesis 2. However, the research on this hypothesis is not finalised and therefore, only a short introduction to the topic is presented.

Hypothesis 1 - Benefits for students Students from the field of Industrial Engineering and Management participate in the Course earning different benefits for their personal and career developments. ESTIEM integrates 8000 students from 31 European countries, all of them have a possibility to attend the course during international or local course training. Based on those students, authors want to see how they see the Course as the opportunity to give an understanding of the educational power of that blended learning. To investigate the benefits for students, their perception about their potential improvements was analysed. To do so, a survey has been built and then sent out to participants of the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course (LSS) . The survey is made up of a set of questions focusing on the impact that 30/04/2018 The influence of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course on European students. Dirkwinkel, Panieri, Pres, and Rosi.

the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course has on participants per different areas of interests. The survey covers three main areas: a. Knowledge acquisition. The Course broadens students’ education (sub-hypothesis: the Course has a strong positive influence on acquiring a broader education); b. Knowledge transferring. The Course influences the way students communicate their knowledge through teaching sections (sub-hypothesis: the Course has a strong positive influence on students to learn how to teach and facilitate); c. Knowledge leveraging. The Course boosts students’ career. (sub-hypothesis: the Course has a strong positive influence to boost students career opportunities, both nationally and internationally (the Course is held in English));

The three areas of analysis of the chosen hypothesis are divided according to the Unified Model of Knowledge Creation of Nonaka, Toyama, and Konno (2000).

Findings resulted from the analysis of this survey are reported in the “Influence of the Course on Students’ Development”. Finally, the chosen hypothesis focuses on the role of the LSS Course in positive impacting participants, by stating that participants effectively gain some particular intrinsic benefits after attending the ESTIEM LSS Course. This is mainly due to the way the Course is built (Rajala, Jarrett, and Turtiainen, 2017).

The first topic that the survey covers is knowledge acquisition. The way the course is built (ibid.) is correlated to how students learn. Moreover, by the expansion of their knowledge base students are empowered directly and indirectly; directly by increasing their knowledge base, indirectly by moving into the second area of interest, Knowledge Transferring, through teaching and proactive learning (Applying phase, ibid.). In this phase, consolidation of theoretical principles allows students, later on in the process, to be able to transfer the LSS body of knowledge to others. In practice, this is achieved by making students continue their lean six sigma journey. Firstly, by performing an internship that again allows consolidating theoretical principles, and secondly by enabling students to share their knowledge with other students as Lean Six Sigma Instructors.

The clear nature of the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course is boundless knowledge transferring, hence through its blended learning method (ibid.), the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course leads to intercultural exchanges of knowledge. Speculations may be held that the implication of what described above may go beyond the simple teaching of a course, and be applicable to any organization. This would be true if we define organizations as a group of entities gathered toward a common objective, in our case the learning, transferring, and leveraging the Lean Six Sigma knowledge.

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To understand why this paper claims benefits for students, the above-mentioned concepts are the foundation of the positive impact the Course has. Continuing through the analysis of the StudentsCourse relation, benefits appear in the area of personal development as well (Hypothesis 1, “a” and “b”). For the above-mentioned reasons, the authors are led to believe that participants of the course would notice an exponential boost in their professional lives, increasing their employability through their knowledge base and improved skills.

Hypothesis 2 - Benefits for Universities To investigate the influence of the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Course on Universites a survey was addressed to the deans and professors of Universities connected to ESTIEM. The main parts of the hypothesis 2 can be presented as: a. ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course may have a strong positive influence on Integration of Lean Six Sigma in European Universities in the area of Quality Management b. ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course has a strong positive influence on the access to the highlevel content which was not available before to universities The survey aims on the one side to investigate the current status of Lean Six Sigma teaching at Universities in general, and on the other side on the opportunities of collaboration between the here presented course and Universities. Insights on benefits for Universities offering LSS Courses may be already investigated as well. The initial findings are presented in the section on hypothesis 2.

METHODOLOGY The authors base the argumentation on two main sources of support: academic literature and surveys as well as feedback about the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course itself.

Academic literature will be taken into account to fill the gap between empirical data and the research problem, what allows to present a sound result that finds its roots in multidisciplinary studies; from psychology to network theory. European Commission Reports provide the holistic knowledge of so far achievements in European studies integration (Vansteenkisten, 2014).

Moreover, Holger Daun (2011) has researched on how European Union concept has impacted on education systems the integration of education among its members.

The survey has been shared among around 250 European students of Industrial Engineering and Management who went so far through the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course and are therefore able to provide the experiences they gathered through the course. The final sample size is of 32 participants. The students come from 31 European countries representing 25 European universities. The survey investigates through quantitative assessments the level of empowerment

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that students have perceived because of the participation to the Lean Six Sigma course and how the course impacted their overall lives and academic career. Moreover, surveys will be sent out to Universities to investigate on their perception about the course given the various outcome of the learning experience. In both cases, surveys will be used to verify our hypotheses. A first survey to representatives of Universities connected to ESTIEM is included in this paper. 16 deans, assistant professors or professors filled in the survey representing 16 European Universities. As this is a rather small sample the authors introduce the findings regarding this limitation. Due to time constraints, this second more specific research should be further expanded to understand the impact of the Course on the Universities and to present a more analytical analysis to identify specific correlations/casualties.

MAIN FINDINGS Influence of the Course on Students’ development The students were asked to answer 11 questions. So, to provide a holistic perspective regarding their so far experiences and achievements, gained through the Lean Six Sigma course provided by ESTIEM. So far, 32 respondents answered to the survey questions representing 22 European Universities.

In the survey, the first four questions refer to the strong positive influence of the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course on acquiring a broader education than offered to the students. To the question, if their University provides such education within the curriculums the answer was in 71% negative confirming that Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course does not exist or is not available for the most of students from those universities (appendix, figure 1). Moreover, the second question which asks whether the students would be interested to participate in such Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course anyway provided by NGOs as in this case is ESTIEM the answer was in 100% of cases positive out of those who answered to this question (78% of the overall respondents answered to this question.

The following question regarded the form of learning and whether participants of the course evaluated the Lean Six Sigma methodology as beneficial. The outcome showed 67% of respondents prefer to learn into an international student’s environment, while proactively participate in the course. 26% of students confirmed that they would prefer to attend the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma course being organized in their universities with local students (appendix, figure 2). Figure 3 (appendix) shows answers to the question “How much did the ESTIEM LSS course broaden your educational background comparing with the previous knowledge of Quality Management”: 41% respondents answered that it greatly affected their knowledge of Quality Management, 37% that it definitely supported their knowledge, 19% of the respondents stated that it helped on average and 30/04/2018 The influence of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course on European students. Dirkwinkel, Panieri, Pres, and Rosi.

3% stated that there was only a little impact to the previously possessed knowledge of Lean Six Sigma methodology. The interviewed sample seems to support the hypothesis that a Lean Six Sigma Course is highly beneficial to students. The Course appears to have a strong positive influence on students in their learning of how to teach and facilitate since former course participants facilitate the sessions for other students attending the course. Of the analysed sample, 67% of the respondents stated that they did not teach before, and 38% stated that they would like to experience becoming a Lean Six Sigma Instructors. Next, to the question regarding students’ interest in becoming an Instructor or in proceeding as a teacher for the Course, the responses were positive in 89% of the cases (appendix, Figure 4).

Apart from the above-mentioned questions, the research went deeper into asking which actual benefits for personal development were acquired for students teaching ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma courses. The development of the soft skills and the learning more about the content of the subject were the most common answer. This part of the research indicates that the Hypothesis 1b is supported. Hypothesis 1c challenged whether ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course has a strong positive influence to boost students’ career opportunities was achieved through answers to two main questions. First, whether the participation in the Course has already proved to boost their career; prospects from students has been confirmed by 75% of the respondents. However, 74% of the respondents answered that the Course did not help yet in going through the actual Green Belt project in order to receive the Green Belt certificate. This answer gives the overview on the difficulty in acquiring the Green Belt project (internship positions) for students in Europe. The further investigations could be made on the perception of such students from the European company’s side. Indeed, a collaborative approach towards an integration between Universities, students, and companies could lead to better results, and projects such as the ESTIEM LSS Course one has proven to boost such integration. Lastly, in the section for research regarding benefits of the Course brought for European students were carried out in order to check the appropriateness of the following hypothesis: “ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course has a positive influence on the students to work in a different country than their own. This is given mostly by the increased chance to get an internship/job position abroad.” In the last question of the survey, the respondents were asked whether the participation in the course will help to build a possibility for finding the job abroad.

89% of the responding students stated that they do believe in a better prospect of finding the job abroad thanks to the participation in the course. The high quality of the Course, or better the perceived quality, seems to be fairly supported by participants. Again, further investigations could be investigated from a companies’ perspective.

The students were asked to answer 11 questions. So, to provide a holistic perspective regarding their so far experiences and achievements, gained through the Lean Six Sigma course provided by 30/04/2018 The influence of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course on European students. Dirkwinkel, Panieri, Pres, and Rosi.

ESTIEM. So far, 32 respondents answered to the survey questions representing 22 European Universities. In the survey, the first four questions refer to the strong positive influence of the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course on acquiring a broader education than offered to the students. To the question if their University provides such education within the curriculums the answer was in 71% negative confirming that Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course does not exist or is not available for the most of students from that Universities (appendix, Figure 1). Moreover, the second question which asks whether the students would be interested to participate is such Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course anyway provided by NGOs as in this case is ESTIEM the answer was in 100% of cases positive out of these who answered to this question (78% of the overall respondents answered to this question. The following question regarded the form of learning and whether participants of the course evaluated the Lean Six Sigma methodology as beneficial. The outcome showed 67% of respondents prefer to learn into an international student’s environment, while proactively participate to the course. 26% of students confirmed that they would prefer to attend the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma course being organised in their universities with local students (appendix, Figure 2). Figure 3 (appendix) shows answers to the question “How much did the ESTIEM LSS course broaden your educational background comparing with the previous knowledge of Quality Management”: 41% respondents answered that it greatly affected their knowledge of Quality Management, 37% that it definitely supported their knowledge, 19% of the respondents stated that it helped on average and 3% stated that there was only a little impact to the previously possessed knowledge of Lean Six Sigma methodology. The interviewed sample seems to support the hypothesis that a Lean Six Sigma Course is highly beneficial to students. The Course appears to have a strong positive influence on students in their learning of how to teach and facilitate, since former course participants facilitate the sessions for other students attending the course. Of the analysed sample, 67% of the respondents stated that they did not teach before, and 38% stated that they would like to experience becoming a Lean Six Sigma Instructors. Next, to the question regarding students’ interest in becoming an Instructor or in proceeding as a teacher for the Course, the responses were positive in 89% of the cases (appendix, Figure 4).

Apart from the above-mentioned questions, the research went deeper into asking which actual benefits for personal development were acquired for students teaching ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma courses. The development of the soft skills and the learning more about the content of the subject were the most common answer. This part of the research indicates that the Hypothesis 1b is supported.

Hypothesis 1c challenged as whether ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course has a strong positive influence to boost students’ career opportunities was achieved through answers to two main questions. First, whether the participation in the Course has already proved to boost their career; 30/04/2018 The influence of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course on European students. Dirkwinkel, Panieri, Pres, and Rosi.

prospects from students has been confirmed by 75% of the respondents. However, 74% of the respondents answered that the Course did not help yet in going through the actual Green Belt project in order to receive the Green Belt certificate. This answer gives the overview on the difficulty in acquiring the Green Belt project (internship positions) for students in Europe. The further investigations could be made on the perception of such students from the European company’s side. Indeed, a collaborative approach towards an integration between Universities, students, and companies could lead to better results, and projects such as the ESTIEM LSS Course one has proven to boost such integration. Lastly, in the section for research regarding benefits of the Course brought for European students were carried out in order to check the appropriateness of the following hypothesis: “ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course has a positive influence on the students to work in a different country than their own. This is given mostly by the increasing chance to get a internship/job position abroad.” In the last question of the survey, the respondents were asked whether the participation in the course will help to build a possibility for finding the job abroad.

89% of the responding students stated that they do believe in a better prospect of finding the job abroad thanks to the participation in the course. The high quality of the Course, or better the perceived quality, seems to be fairly supported by participants. Again, further investigations could be investigated from a companies’ perspective.

Influence of the course on Universities Even though the authors researched the influence of ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma on Universities, the findings do not yet get full support from data, mostly because of the small sample reached.

However, the intermediate results from a survey addressed to the deans and professors of Universities connected to ESTIEM can be presented. In the future, the survey will help in developing and supporting the hypothesis 2, which focuses on the benefits that universities can gain from the Lean Six Sigma Course held by ESTIEM. The first findings should be discussed in the following way. In total, sixteen answers were given by deans, professors and associate professors in the survey so far. In nearly all of the approached Universities, Quality management is an important study and thus courses are taught in the field. Over 40% stated a high relevance of the study of Quality Management (appendix, Figure 6). These courses sometimes entail a lean and or six sigma part, but also at some Universities it is already taught as a separate course. However, certifications are not always included or free of charge (appendix, Figure 7a and b).

Apart from the existing courses, the interest in collaborating with students on a course seems rather promising and may result in mutual benefits, as Universities do not yet trust the content from the here developed course but show interest in it (appendix, Figure 8 and 9).

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For further development of the course, the students working on the course may benefit from input on their content and teaching. By benchmarking the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Course with courses held at the Universities both sides may gain in viewpoints on teaching. To measure the influence of the course on Universities, the amount of successful conducted Green Belt Projects by students of a particular University may be a key performance indicator for the courses’ influence. The Green Belt projects represent the link between the theoretical learning and the practical application in real world conditions, which universities may struggle to offer otherwise.

Additionally, the rating of the course by students may be introduced as an indicator for the success of the course. The course may be rated according to the Universities students feedback system, if existing, and thus a benchmark to other courses at the University, as introduced before, is possible.

PAPER Originality This paper describes the current situation and proves research regarding the impact of education in Lean Six Sigma and Quality Management from around 31 European countries. It enables to see the benefits of the blended learning method in combination of the Lean Six Sigma Knowledge from an Industrial Management and Engineering student perspective.

Acknowledgments We would like to acknowledge Gregory H. Watson for the development of the body of knowledge for the ESTIEM Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course and to Professor Paulo Sampaio for the support in being able to write this research paper. Further research should be conducted from both the University and Companies point of view, to strengthen the findings and show that the combination of Lean Six Sigma in a Blending Learning contest is a win-win-win situation.

Results The authors aim to show what the reality is showing in a more formal and thoughtful way. Data was collected through a survey spread out to around 200 students of Engineering and Management across Europe. So far, the collected data is quite promising, confirming the reality. The main goal still is to improve a collaboration between Universities and students, hence to increase the engagement level of students and the social return on investment for Universities (expressed in a greater visibility among companies). At the same time, it proves that learning Quality Management, in an international environment, facilitates the personal development as well as increases the likelihood of getting better opportunities by having a greater freedom of choice. By aiming to be a rather empirical confirmation of the Blended Learning Method, this paper does not intend to be 30/04/2018 The influence of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course on European students. Dirkwinkel, Panieri, Pres, and Rosi.

disruptive, or a paradigm shift, but rather a confirmation that combining the Blending Learning Methods with Lean Six Sigma is exponentially beneficial for students, by improving in different areas simultaneously.

Limitations The main limitation is the number of received answers to the survey. A sample size of 32 out of 200 possible can be analysed. For further research, the sample size should be increased. As the course is ongoing around Europe, the database is growing continuously. However, gathering this number of students going through the Course in the first year may already emphasize some of the points made.

In the future, the survey should be extended. Shedding light on the premises at universities as well as gathering feedback for the course design (i.e. blended learning approach) may be investigated.

Moreover, collaboration possibilities between student’s associations or individual students for bringing such courses to their universities and further developing the Course prompt another interesting aspect.

The third party, the companies, should be included in the research as well. One of the major parts of the teaching is the application of the learnt methods, tools and approaches. Every participant of the course needs to finish a practical project (e.g. Green Belt Project) for finalizing the course participation with receiving the Green Belt Certificate.

Surveying the companies which accompanied and offered the practical project of at least one student would give insights on how well students learn and give insights to practical applications.

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Kształcenie i szkolenie. (2018). Higher education in Europe - Kształcenie i szkolenie - European Commission. [online] Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/education/study-in-europe/planning-studies/european-higher-education_pl [Accessed 22 Jan. 2018].

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Nonaka, I., Toyama, R. and Konno, N. (2000). SECI, Ba and Leadership: a Unified Model of Dynamic Knowledge Creation. Long Range Planning, 33(1), pp.5-34.

Rajala M., Jarrett H., Turtiainen J., 2017. A Blended Learning Approach to Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Education for European Students. Lappeenranta University of Technology School of Business and Management.

Bjørnåvold, J. (2007). Managing European diversity in lifelong learning, P. 79-95 HAN University, Foundation EC-VPL & Hogeschool van Amsterdam September 2007. [online] Available

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https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/5844084/vpl2.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53U L3A&Expires=1517056869&Signature=HYCWNabx107vjBalHfTncxeMup0%3D&response-contentdisposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DManaging_European_diversity_in_lifelong.pdf#page=81 [Accessed 27 Jan. 2018]

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APPENDIX Figure 1

Figure 2

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Figure 3

Figure 4

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Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7a

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Figure 7b

Figure 8

Figure 9

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