Hello Capot
The rare times that I answer in this forum, you are always quite on the ball with my responses! There is no escape from you!
According to Part-66, an approved basic course delivered by Part-147 will reduce time to two years now. All is well explained in Part-66 at regulation 66.A.30 and also in the Acceptable Means of Compliance which relate to 66.A.30.
The list of Part-147 approved organisations available from CAA website will list all those that you mention. However, there seems to be only 11 places at the moment offering a proper Part-66 basic course. Whether they are well delivered is another question. I do believe some are good.
However, bcw says that he cannot entertain full-time as he is working. So he has only the self-study option and securing the goodwill of local maintenance organisations or aerodrome who will let him come and get some experience.
Thank God for people of goodwill!
By the way, you may be pleased to know that the results of the AME Training Standard survey which I put on Pprune last January and which 120 engineers kindly answered (and I think you did too) has been proving useful and has gone to good places.