moosp,
It was The Nr Fairy's instructor who taught helicopter EFATO to me too. And he also told me it was part of the PPL syllabus, that no-one should be sent solo without having been shown engine failure in every part of the circuit. Common sense tells me he's right...though I've been panicking at the mere thought of teaching it.
In fact, I have no intention of doing so without more experience, and I certainly wouldn't expect every instructor to be able to. But...shouldn't all pilots be learning it, pre-PPL, pre-first solo? As PF1 says, engines can fail at any time.