For a 2 week course at $200 it's a pretty good value. If you also get 20 units of semen thrown in, the training is actually free, provided the semen is of good quality.
I'm not sure what you mean about an AI certificate. A certificate of completion is a certificate, and there are no industry wide standards that I know of. I did my training in the '80's first, and did my own cows for about 10 years. I finally became a Beef representative for Genex, and took their training course. I already knew a lot about AI, but learned a lot from their trainers.
Breeding cows is basically an art that you need a lot of practice to become proficient at. Beef cattle and dairy cattle are virtually the same, but other species are totally different.
If I were you, I'd take the course and learn all you can. Then, I'd contact one of the major AI companies and see if they need any AI techs in your area. They will also help you to get proficient at it, but it likely will cost you some extra $.
If you live in an area where there are a lot of dairy cows, you could possibly be quite busy year round. If you are in a beef area like me, you will be busy for about 6 - 7 weeks a year, and then nothing. It will cost you some $ to get equipped. A semen tank is around $600 - $1000, and the rest of the equipment will be around another $300 or more. Then, you need to keep your tank charged with LN, and that will cost you about $50 a month or so. Personally, I have 4 tanks that I keep charged year round, and I keep a fair amount of semen on hand, so my inventory is also quite a few thousand $.
Breeding beef cows is sometimes a bit dangerous. Some cows are a bit high strung, and you must be on the lookout for your safety at all times. Some kick like a horse, and you must protect yourself with a post or bar behind them to block the kicks. Then---inevitably when you get your arm way into the cow, she will decide to drop down, and you will be in danger of breaking your arm.
After a long day of breeding cows, I come home saturated with a lot of some kind of brown stuff that cows secrete from their posterior end. I have quickly learned that it's best to keep my mouth shut when I'm back there. Those cattle on lush, green grass sometimes can squirt that brown stuff where you don't want it to go. Some of my friends make fun of my job. They teast me that I spend my time with my arm up a cow's posterior, and I tell them that I'd rather have my arm up there than my nose up their bosses posterior like they have to do. That usually ends the discussion.
Good luck, and let me know how things turn out for you. The cattle AI industry is a wide open field, and there is a lot of business out there if you're good at it.
