Courses can be rather variable; a lot depends on the sylabus, more on the Tutor(s), more still, in the other folk on the course.
When I did City & Guilds, many many years ago, we had three regular tutors.and were lucky, one was member of very renowned local photo society, other a member of their equally renowned rival, and one was a member of both..... each had their pet specialties;
One was all for people & portraiture, the other all for architectural and landscapes, whilst the third was a confirmed dark-room jockey.
One was very keen on the 'science', that we knew an f-stop from a bus stop, knew the different metering methods and DoF etc, and had particular pet thing about 'lighting'. He looked on with disgust at even 'semi' automatic SLRs, let alone compacts!
Other, was more concerned with composition; taking the time to review the full frame .... "North-South-East-West, check the corners, THEN the rest"... I still remember it now, after almost thirty years and Alzheimers has set in! He actually set us the junk-shop camera challenge; he really didn't care much for how fancy your camera was, just where you chose to point it.
The Dark room Jockey..... was M-A-D!!! I liked him! I'm reliably informed that its the effect of long term exposure to hypo-fumes lol! He was actually a very good counter-point to the other two, offering opinion on how much you CANT correct in post... but how much you 'may' achieve... if you get it clean in camera first, and how the best post-process manipulations aren't salvage jobs, but demand more diligence in shooting to make the image(s) to mess with to get the desired 'effect' in repro.
Between the three, and the few gust lecturers pulled in from ether club from time to time, we got a very 'balanced' idea of what was what....And not a computator in sight!
But, folk on the course made as much odds.
There were at that time, quite a number of middle-aged house-wives, with time on their hands as kids had grown up, having replaced the hand-bag Instamatic with a all-singing-all-dancing 'Auto-Focus' SLR, chap in the shop had assured them was as point and shoot friendly as their disc camera, but so much 'better'... that they soon found WASN'T, really..... I had come from hobby photography at uni, mostly reading the mags and books, a couple were similar, one chap was even a pro-wedding snapper, who in semi-retirement was bored of the same five poses, two lens settings and a permutation of three different aperture shutter combinations tweaked to meter on the day, who wanted to get that bit 'more' from the 10000's of £ worth of Bronicas in his bag!
It was an eclectic 'mix' and large enough after the couple of lightweights dropped out, to be fairly dynamic, and with mix of ages and abilities 'challenging' to the tutors, all asking different questions from our own experience, and feed from and to each other, taking different angles on each of the weekly assignments, and the 'critique' session we had in the coffee break.
NOW.... you cant bank on any one of those 'ingredients'.... I think I was quite lucky, really, but even as course tutor pointed out, it really is all circumstance dependent, and even with great mix of tutors and tutor approaches and specializations, so much depends on the students... and what they expect and what inspires them, and what their objectives are.
What you DO NOT get from video tutorials, or from books or magazines or 'on-line' resources, IS that multi-way dynamic of a 'class', where you can learn as much from your peers as your tutors.
But even on a course, and my daughter was lucky once and less lucky second time, doing O & A levels. with a single tutor things can be very much more 'staid', not so much being taught 'photography' as one tutors approach to it, which may be quite a narrow one. On 'O' level, daughters tutor was, frankly NUTS! Very much of the old serendipity-photo school; get up, get out and just do it, and a lot of messing in post to make something more interesting of the results, which was probably about spot-on for a bunch of 15/16 year olds thinking it a 'doss-lesson'. On 'A' Level, her tutor was very much more diligent, and concerned not with results and effect or intent, but much more rigid, photo-science, demonstrating the effect of aperture or shutter or lens, lighting and pose; ie formal 'settings' and discipline that did frustrate the girl... but still, even with a much more narrow range of academic students, still a fair mix of ideas and approaches and plenty to discuss over coffee in critique.
SO!!!! I don't think that there IS a panacea answer here. You need to mix the mediums a bit. A formal course IS good. You get challenged to do stuff you probably wouldn't if left to your own devices, in the assignments. You 'can' get some useful know-how from interacting with your class-mates, you wont sat at home trying to go-it-alone, and more from tutor, or tutors, which MAY include extra curricular reading matter or tutorials, as well as chance to 'play' with alternative cameras, and widen experience you would't get elsewhere.
Significantly for 'me' on course, was the 'Medium-Format' debate, and the one tutor who specialized in people utterly convinced it was the 'only' medium worth it's salt; vs the other who specialized in architecture and landscape, who was more sanguine, and loath to lug that much kit up a mountain, every time! Curiously, all three, and the pro-student, were ALL quite disparaging about SLR's in general! "Jack of all-trades techno-wonders!" it was about the only thing that all agreed on, TBH Lol!
So, what can I suggest? Well, a local college of FE night-class, is probably a good place to start. I have no idea what they cost these days, I think mine was something daft like £15 to be paid in three termly installments! A-N-D recently evicted from uni and on the dole looking for a 'popper' job I think even that was waved on a UB40!
From experience with daughter, & other half and my own migration to widget, modern commercialization of college courses has seen some rather daft prices attached. But check them out.
My local CoFE, I noted ran some quite 'cheap' six week'ish short courses, for about £50 or so, that are probably a good toe-in the water, and can build towards a more recognized qualification like a C&G or BTEC or GCSE. Noted that my local CoFE, even listed some of them as after-noon classes, timed for primary-school pick-up, as well as longer more formal evening classes.
I think I would be loath to chuck the sort of cash that would buy me an Entry DSLR outfit at an 'independent' who could be nothing more than an part time tutor who's lost their college course 'cos of student numbers, or a wedding snapper trying to make up for out of season job drop-off. They COULD be bludy good photographers, or they could be fantastic teachers, but two aren't mutually inclusive, and all rather more 'pot-luck', especially if they have their own script, and aren't even working to an independently defined syllabus like one of the colleges.... here, asking during a toe-in the water short course could give me a clue whether they may be worth a shout, as well as whether short course was worth persevering with or whether the local photo-club could offer anything.
End of the day, its your call; BUT, photography is a HUGE topic, and so much is down to pot luck & circumstance, more still to your approach and aspiration, more that of your tutor, more still fellow students... and where YOUR starting knowledge and aspirations sit in comparison.
I have to say, though that a formal course DOES offer something you just cat get going it alone, on line or from books; and I have to 'sort' of put club photography in with independents, ad huge area of uncertainty. Some clubs can be very cliquey; some may offer very good photo-training sessions, but its very pot luck; and many clubs have very narrow realms of specialization... notably 'competition-photo'.. hence my three lecturers on C&G... one specializing in people & portraiture, on on Architecture & landscape, the third, on dark-room 'effect' and 'abstract'.. if you want to do competition photo, it can be very good... if you just want to take better snap-shots of the family it can lead you into a very different world!
As said, start by assessing candidly your current level; thing long and hard about your aspirations; and then check out local CoFE brochures; you may get some hints and tips from on-line and or how to-books; and your local library probably has a good collection of 'how to' books worth checking out (As well as notice board and or rack of pamphlets for local CoFE courses!).. it's worth doing some back-ground reading and research, which, once you have picked a course is likely to continue being worth-while.
As said, there's no single panacea one-size fits all answer here; you have to mix and match a bit, and do your home-work.
