ok if you were talking to a dealership tech then i can see that statement being true.
Dealerships do not charge their techs for training and in most cases they get paid for the training time.
But this is only in-house employees.

If there would happen to be a rare (and i do mean rare) case of outsiders coming in for training then yep... fork out the dough cause THEN the outsiders would pay.

On the dealership's end of it yes it does cost the dealership to get the training from the factory per employee, always has. Your estimate of the cost is close, today it is probably a bit more because of changing times and inflated rates now.