Were you able to contact Russel Musta with Lotus Ltd. or somebody with Lotus In Pittsburgh (the Pittsburgh club affiliated with Lotus Ltd.)?
I found 5 other Lotus Ltd. members in Pittsburgh but more interestingly, I did a search for members in Gibsonia, and of course I didn't find any, but I found one in Freedom, PA (James Mengon email: jalimen at aol dot com) and and one in Pittsburgh (Rob Dillon rob email: robdillon dot com). James considers his technical expertise to be "good" and Rob considers his to be "excellent." Both of these guys own '74 Europa Specials also James has an Elan S2 and Rob has a Lotus Seven S4 which suggests to me that they both have a firm mechanical background. Now I don't know how much hand holding they would be willing to do but the fact that they listed their technical expertise suggests to me they would be willing to help you learn.
I would also suggest reading the workshop manuals (online here
http://lotus-europa.com/manuals/). My next door neighbor's teenage son comes over to help me when he can and I try to teach him things in addition to whatever the task of the day is but I've looked for a "get started" book but I haven't found one. I got my start with my VW Bug so I got a copy of "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot." As the title suggests, it is for the beginner and it is filled with lessons, tips, and other helpful information that is universal to people wanting to keep a "pre-modern" car going. It is written in a very conversational tone and is often humorously. Unfortunately, it obviously is directed at VW owners so a lot of the information will be of little use to you (I did learn to statically time my VW using that book and the TC motor is statically timed and there are many things that are common to all cars - even modern ones!)
Haggerty Insurance (a very good option for your insurance) has articles on wrenching that are good. Of course most of them aren't helpful for wrenching on a Europa although some of them give general wrenching information, but Rob Seigel has a lot of well written, interesting articles about experiences he's had with maintaining his huge fleet of BMWs. His articles are a good read and they are another way of learning some general wrenching tips and techniques. But even more interesting and to the point is that he bought a Europa Special a few years back that he resurrected and he's written a lot of articles about his experiences with it. So many, in fact, that he's collected them into a book ("The Lotus Chronicles: One man’s sordid tale of passion and madness while resurrecting a 40-year-dead Lotus Europa Twin Cam Special").
None of those suggestions are in the form of a class. You might find one at a tech school. They can be very good though I would think they would be more geared toward modern cars rather than classic cars like ours.
I think I suggested joining a local Lotus, MG, or Triumph club. They will occasionally have tech sessions where you can learn new skills and you can meet some great people.
But how did I learn what I did (and I'm still learning)? Speaking for myself (and I suspect many of us here) I learned by doing, reading manuals, making mistakes and mostly from somebody who was willing to take me under his wing. In my case, he taught me stuff so I could help him put his race car together. I recommend this route if you can find such a person (but even if you can't find someone who spent the hours several days a week over a year or more, I think you'll be able to find someone who can guide you through specific tasks and answer questions. And of course, we here are always willing to help also!
Good luck!
