I can say with experience that some starter courses are simply not well taught. The "beliefs" of the various teachers on the one I did many moons ago beggar belief. Always use plastic ends, always use local bees , never use SN4's, never buy a poly hive your bees will overheat, matchsticks under crownboards to give a nice draft of cold air through the hive etc etc. I also hated been called a "Newbee" as though they were the experts. What I remember afterwards was an overbearing sense of being taught all their little prejudices, rather than reasoned answers
I asked how one got started with bees they said wait for a swarm, put your name down on the list....I wisely ignored this bad advice and bought a nuc to start with and wasted the next 5 years trying to improve my local bees which were then, and still are a, nightmare (in my particularly area). At no stage where we ever given the various options like different hive types that would suit different bee strains...in fact they didn't even tell us there were any other bee strains
. I still have the original handouts....I shall look them out and provide a few more pearls of wisdom.
I'll give you a typical example of how bad their education secretary was. I A few years ago I was due to give a talk to my local association about varroa and their control. Their education secretary rang me up a couple of days before hand and said I could not talk about using oxalic acid for treating varroa as it was highly dangerous and there would be beginners in the audience...I refused, he refused to budge. I resigned from the association. This is typical of how badly some beginners course are taught.
So Yes,.... it sounds like good advice to forget most of what your are taught initially.
I just wish they would try to get new beekeepers to think about what is happening with THEIR own bees and not take advice from someone with different bees in a different area. Being a good beekeeper is more about working and reacting to what your bees are doing and there are many ways to achieve the same end.
I honestly think many starter course are simply an extension of the ego and a chance to pass their own particular "prejudices" of the education secretaries who run them.