Penn Foster

PennFoster's Small Engine Repair Course has a lot of good material, but some of it is outdated (outboard boat engines), and some of it doesn't go into the subject very far. The course itself was above average, but I enrolled under the GI Bill, and once PennFoster has your credit card number, it seems like they could care less about submitting any paperwork to the VA for your benefit. I'm currently paying out of my own pocket because PennFoster has yet to submit documents to the VA for payment. All I'm saying is, expect to pay for the course yourself, because it appears that they have no support staff.

This is an excellent program, allowed me to develop my skills in a new career that moves millions of dollars and I'm there to get my part, the materials were very well explained and very affordable price (here in PR the course costs about $ 8000) only I regret not having done it before. Definitely take other courses related to my new career, I could finally start my own repair shop and I have done very well, there are people who did not like the course but it all depends on your goals and you want to do in life and I already got it.

A few years ago I enrolled for their Small Engine Repair course. I learned a whole lot, but let me assure you it was a lot of work; reading, studying, etc. I didn't finish in time but that was my own fault. For about $600 you get the full course and they send you actual small engine components and tools to work with, which I thought was pretty handy and convenient. You don't get any kind of special certification other than Penn Foster's own little Small Engine Repair Tech Diploma(as far as I know, like I said I didn't finish). Which is good enough if you're just interested in small engines or want a job at a lawnmower shop or Sears or something. The biggest drawback was that the books were out of date. I started my course in '07 or '08, and the books were only updated to about '96. Aside from that small engines haven't changed that much in the past 10-15 years and a lot of people still own old small engine equipment. But still I'd have liked to get material that was at least up to date for the past 5 years. Test taking was easy and I always got my new books promptly. They sent me too many books once but that was no big deal. Overall I was quite satisfied, learning about things I was interested in. Some books were mind-numbingly boring and there is a LOT of material to get in your head without anybody's help. I say if you wanna learn small engines, do this, because I can't think of anywhere else to learn about them in a collegiate way.