I've had this question asked of myself on a regular basis for several years (people visiting my shop or customers in remote locations). All have basic mechanical background.
Where is there a school / training facility where someone can take multi-day or week long training classes (certified?) for:
- basic Ducati mileage related service work
- engine rebuild / heads / transmissions
- tuning of engines
I know of the UTI/MMI, WyoTech, etc -- but all are quarterly or longer classes. Anyone know of anything shorter that people could schedule as part of regular vacation schedules from there "daytime jobs"?
I've had the same thing asked of me in the Porsche world. Short answer is No, there isn't anything Porsche sponsored that has technician training available to the public. Aftermarket do it yourself books are available but as far as I know that's it. Local clubs may have a guru that puts on classes. My experience with UTI is that while it may be an excellent program, sometimes they don't produce the best techs.
I believe that my local dealer told me that they sent their head mechanic to the plant in Italy for formal training. Not sure if this is true, but I would guess that there is some sort of training provided thought DNA.
As a graduate of UTI, I would not recommend it to anyone unless they get into a manufacturer program. I didn't really learn much that I couldn't have learned under a mentor. I just got lucky that I had a good one when I graduated from the Audi Academy. For what it is worth I am not even in the industry anymore (accounting now). I will say that a got a decent amount of knowledge but payed WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY to much for it. 21 grand for 11 months [bang] [bang]. Real experience can only come from real world experience. That being said I have a few friends that I graduated with that are very good techs that make great money. THe majority of the dudes I went to school with were real idiots.