My usual response to this is to suggest that people get "The Art of Electronics" and "The Art of Electronics Student Manual", and then some cheap equipment and components, and then work through both books.

Some of the books are severely out of date, but much of it is still useful and they're great introductions for smart people to electronics.

And nowadays you don't even need real equipment, you can probably find excellent simulations and virtual equipment.

Along side that you probably want to learn to solder well. (http://www.astro.umd.edu/~harris/docs/WellerSoldering.pdf) is a guide from Weller. This is a bit old, because it doesn't cover no-clean solders, or low-lead solders.

Hopefully other people have some more up-to-date information.