UBI is worth it!! I took the steel brazing course with no brazing or welding experience and basically came out with a completely safe bike frame. The cost is a bit steep, but if you're buying a handmade custom frame you will spend at least a grand anyways. They use top notch parts and tooling.
There were a couple of guys who had already built frames from a book and those guys learned more than they had expected. The good thing about UBI is that you learn both hand mitering and machine mitering plus different aspects of frame building as well as the business end of it.