I am a fan of welding courses, but only at good prices. When I was young I took welding at the Votec school in La. I took the course in the evenings and could go either from 6 to 9 or from 6 to midnight, five days a week. There was one instructor and maybe 30 students. Actually not a bad ratio, as it only takes about five minutes of instruction followed by hours of practice. That school was part of the school system and there was no cost to the students. Back then welding was a bit less complicated, and there was only oxy/acet and stick to learn. It was after WWII so TIG had been invented, but it was not common.
And more recently I took some welding at the local community college. This time it cost money, but senior citizens can take classes on a space available basis for something like $30, which is cheaper than paying for the consumables as gas and electrodes. The class was 3 hours a night and I think two nights a week. Again one instructor and maybe 40 students. Mostly oxy/acet and stick, but I and a couple of other students took TIG. No one was doing any MIG welding, although they did have some machines. I tried one out setting it up from the instructions right on the machine. If you have done other types of welding, you can figure it out on your own. Even less instruction as more students, but still enough. Mostly welding is practice with someone to point out what you are doing wrong and suggesting things to try.
So in your case, I would skip the school. If you could find someone that would let you pay them some beer money to spend an hour with you, I would do that.
Dan