The transition to a small engine repair school from a large repair school is not that easy, because it takes a good deal of adjusting to the size difference.
One of the better American appliance repair schools is Los Mendanos College in Pittsburgh, CA. It offers an associates degree in appliance repair in a small college atmosphere.
This field needs a hands on approach so you should source for a course locally. This site gives a good list of such courses http://education-portal.com/articles/List_of_Free_Small_Engine_Repair_Courses.html. Good luck!
There are some schools that purport to give adequate online motorcycle repair training, but you won't get a good education without a hands-on element.
Contact your local board of education to inquire about where you can learn the desired trade or degree, and they will help you find a suitable school to do so.
Repairing your John Deere equipment can be hard to do. It is suggested to start by taking small engine repair courses at your local community college.
Universal Technical Institution is said to be a very good school for certification in the repairing field.
This is not easy. You're talking about a small crack in the engine block, I assume. Ideally you should stop the crack from getting longer by drilling a small hole at the exact end of it. Then the crack needs to be welded, probably after the engine has come out (depending on accessibility). But this is a hell of a big job for a small hairline crack. You may find that cleaning the area throughly and using one of the epoxy pastes around (JB Weld is a very good one) that you can achieve a good repair cheaply and easily. But drill the small hole first.
If you have enough clientele, there's potential for it. It's a bit doubtful you'll find yourself a multi-millionaire from doing lawnmower engine repair, though.
haynes repair manuals are good but you can go to autozone.com and they have online repair manuels as well it a good site for a lot of information on repair work.
many people have good luck searching for reapair shops online. Sites such as Craigslist often have ads for repair shops.
Many schools are closed for Good Friday, but each school district in the United States determines their own calendar for days off. If there are schools that are not closed for Good Friday in Vermont, it would probably be a very small number.