If they have not changed their mind and started with Learning, end-game becomes very difficult as they must spend money on attribute enhancements for their character and waste both Eve Isk and time. I recommend a middle ground. Consider taking Learning as a beginning skill for your character. That way you can train it to level 2 early on without wasting time and Eve Isk having to go get it.

Don not train past level 2 yet, but move on to the skills you want to build your character with. You will still shave hours off your learning time without giving up a large chunk of time to begin with. Your money is better spent on a good ship and fittings at this point. When you get to a point where you are dominating your agent missions and fairly confidant about whatever professional activities your character has chosen, it is time to consider attribute skills.

If you are combat oriented and not planning on using the attributes which boost Learning for anything other than Learning, do not bother taking them. Yes, they will save you a little time, but your combat skills are more important. Put Learning at level 3 or 4 during the times you have to be offline for a while. Level 5 of Learning is never worth the time it takes to train, so ignore that and take a couple of levels in the attribute skills of your choice.

By this point you will be wanting to upgrade your ship and probably try some new levels of missions and other activities, so start back on your regular profession skills. Later in the game, you can either train more attribute skills or buy enhancements (or both, if you like) to finish out your character skill training speed.

If you follow this plan you will have very little down time and will be able to train skills at a decent, steady speed. Again, consider your play style before you decide which skills to learn when - there are no limits to how many skills you can have, just how fast you can learn them.

This article provides a general overview of attributes and skills and was written for players new to the game. In case you would like to get a really good understanding of attributes and skills - please take a look at the EVE guide offered