Jonez

quick question. Im holding a strong desire to become an audi technician but im not aware of where the best place to start is. Obviously some serious schooling is necessary, but what school can you experienced techs recommend?

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/106705/audiworldgraf1.jpg">

Bracketracer

what sort of mechanical/electrical/diagnostic abilities do you already have?

If none or little, then a good start would be at a local community college's auto tech school. After that, I would recommend doing one of two things:
1) find yourself a local independent shop who does a lot of VW/Audi repair, and apprentice there. I started out this way without any formal training, but was fortunate to work under an owner who was VERy willing to train as needed. I did this for about 5 years before moving to a franchise dealer.
2) apprentice at a franchise dealer. If you already have good solid skills with replacing parts and basic diagnostics, they may be willing to send you to their fast track program for training if that still exists.

Either way, going into these things with solid basic skills is a must.

For what it's worth, I've got my own shop now, and have been to a total of 3 schools accumulating less than 3 weeks of class/hands-on time
1) TT launch training
2) 2.7T launch training
3) Murcielago launch training