I don't know of much in the way of production sound educational courses, etc.
If you are not aware of them, there are two places where production sound pros congregate:
jwsound
On the rare occasions they talk about getting into the production sound fraternity most seem to have an extensive - although general - knowledge of all aspects of sound techniques, etc. and then educate themselves on the specifics of production sound on the way up the production sound ladder, starting out as a cable wrangler, then as a boom op and finally becoming the production sound mixer.
You may also want to check out:
equipment emporium
And you are right about how neglected sound is, most especially in the low/no/micro budget film world, and they are even more ignorant of audio post than they are of production sound. As an audio post guy working on primarily indie projects most of my work is fixing truly horrendous production sound.
When I tell people that I do audio post they say "sound is so important", which is really stupid; it's like telling a DP or editor (many of whom don't understand sound either) that pictures are important - they just don't get it!
"Sound is half of the experience" - Steven Spielberg
Good luck!!!
