Systems education: where to get it?

[sc2]

I am in the San Francisco area and am starting a search for inexpensive educational resources in the field of marine systems installation and servicing focusing on electricity and hydraulics, not including engine mechanics, which I see as a separate specialty. My goal is to become employed in the field.

I think that I may have tried a thread like this this a while back?, but I've been distracted and without a computer for a while. Now I am seriously looking to get going on this and am considering both online and classroom instruction (federal financial aid is necessary for the classroom option), the thing is that I need to decide soon on a plan of action, the best route to a satisfying job. I feel that surveying would be a worthy addition to round out my education, but not an end in itself.

I have some training in boatbuilding both wood and glass, and have decided that systems is the field that will make best use of my abilities and give the results that I seek: to start out in someone's shop, and eventually to live on a cruising sailboat and take my business with me.

All advice is most welcome.

Thanks,

sc2